Lady Macbeth Flashcards

1
Q

“pour my spirits in thine ear”
Act1

the fall of man is a central idea of tragedy, for a religious Jacobean audience as this would be reflective of the archetype, the story of Adam and Eve. Eve was tempted to eat the fruit by Satan in the form on a serpent ( much like LM was tempted by the witches’ suggestion of kingship)
Eve ate the fruit and convinced Adam to do the same, leading to both of their downfall and being banished from the Garden Of Eden. It could be argued that LM is much like Eve, set the foundation for her husband’s downfall

A
  • Depicts her manipulatative and evil qualitities
  • the noun “pour” builds her connection to her emasculating threat that she is “too full of the milk of human kindess” suggesting she will replace this milk with evil
  • the noun “milk” is a symbol of femininity and maternal nurturing, Lady M rejects notion of femininity
  • she is almost like a forth witch in her manipulations as the noun “spirits” is reminsient of the supernatural
  • This is reinforced by the use of imperative language “unsex me here”, “come you spirits” and “come thick night”. It seems as if she is casting a spell, the nouns “spirits” and “night” allude to a dark supernatural force. She yearns to be riod of her feminity to encompass the inhamne and witchlike role that would grant her power
  • She is aware that her feminity is a “passage of remorse” . Her wnat to stop “access” to remorse, not necessarily a maternal emotion, highlight how she sees emotion synonymous with weakness
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2
Q

“had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done it”
Act 2

A
  • exposes her inner cowardice and ingrained fear of patricide
    -LM is manipulative as she operates within a liminal gender, she takes advantage of alleged feminine weakness when it works in her favour yet brutally rejects it if it represses her
  • Shakespeare may have been creating a subtle commentary on how arbitrary gender roles were
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3
Q

“a little water clears us the deed”
act 2

A
  • Contributes to the theme of appearence vs realty
  • Shakespeare simulateously employs liotes and euphemism
  • The litotes is used to downplay Duncan’s murder and Macbeth’s guilt, it is laced with irony as LM shifts to a melodramatic state of insanity and begins to speak in hyperbole as the guilt takes over
  • Exposes her indifference to the murder as a facade. Shakespeare’s use of euphasmism hints to this by referring to the murder as a “deed”. LM fails to face up to the reality of it, she must placate it into less heinous words in order to keep her composure
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4
Q

“look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it”
act 3

A
  • characterises Macbeth as a marionette of evil influence, he echos both the witches in their lexis and his wife
    -the imagery of the “innocent flower” highlights the goodness, but also the vulnerability, of honest human behaviour.
    -The juxtaposition with “the serpent under’t” is a clear biblical reference to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, who helped to bring original sin into the world. The audience would certainly link this with the Devil. This suggests Lady Macbeth would rather act like the devil than as a moral human being - like the witches, she sees that “fair is foul, and foul is fair.”
    -The word “under’t” implies evil is underneath all of our behaviour.
    -The imperative verb ‘look’ highlights her power over her husband as she gives him commands.
    -The enjambment and the turning point of the word ‘but’ highlight her deliberate slyness and the contrast between the outward appearance and the inner reality.
  • Shakespeare shows her as manipulative and sinful, deliberately playing on contemporary perceptions of women.
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5
Q

LM is not in Act 4

A
  • makes her fall from grace more rapidly
  • she is classified as a tragic heroine as her beginning status was that of success and power, yet her absence foreshadows her impending doom
  • Act 4 exposes the tyranical rule of Macbeth whilst also highlighting how his tyranical rule will be put to an end. Significantly, LM demise is aligned with Macbeth’s demise of honourability and nobility
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6
Q

“out damned spot, out I say!”
guilt
act 5

A
  • The “Spot” is emblamatic of the scar the murder has created on her mind. Alternatively, this may be interpreted in another sense by Shakespeare’s contemporaries. Madness was often perceived as a sign of being possessed by demons, it was believed that demons and witches has a “spot” on their body which marked them as evil, this is reinforced by “damned” which has connotations of hell
    -the use of the imperative “out” is in keeping with Lady Macbeth being both powerful and in command, she is ordering the blood to go.
    -There is an underlying irony here however as the fact that Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking confers how she does not have control over everything. She cannot control nature and she cannot ultimately control her own mind as she is so evidently in torment. This is reinforced with the repetition of the word “out”; this serves to point to her evident loss of control.
    -Repetition serves to convey a sense of panic and desperation, both of which are emotions that are the exact antithesis of control. This image of a tormented Lady Macbeth is in direct juxtaposition to the image of her goading Macbeth and calling him a “coward” thereby implying that she was the one with all the strength and fearlessness. In this brief speech Shakespeare explores the concept of guilt and sin.
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7
Q

Lady Macbeth enters with a taper
act 5

A

-As a taper provides light, this is emblematic of how LM is seeking light, hope and solace in her eternal mental darkness.
-Jesus was seen to be the “light” of the world, porviding salvation of mankind, thereform LM’s dependency on the light could illuminate how she is hopeful for salvation and retribution for her sins

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8
Q

‘All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. O, O, O’
act 5

A

-Lady Macbeth acknowledges in her madness the extent of her guilt as she tries to clean imaginary blood from her hands.
- The image of the heavy scents of the myriad (many types of) perfumes of an exotic land shows how nothing can eradicate her guilt.
- The fragmented speech of ‘O, O, O’ reflects the lack of control she has over her mind; this is very different from Act 1 when she calls the spirits to her with such authority. In this scene, she uses prose, rather than the blank verse she used in earlier acts, showing again the descent into madness.

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