Lady Macbeth

Question 1

“Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it”

Answer 1

• Lady Macbeth encourages her husband to be more deceptive and manipulative
• The imperatives are controlling and demanding
• LM is using her husband masculine power to achieve her own ambition
• The biblical image of a ‘serpent’ is indicative of temptation & manipulation
  Lady Macbeth is the temptress, she is the almost satanic influence over her husband.
• Shakespeare suggests women have a devil-like control of their husbands in the domestic sphere
• She is the epitome of sin,

Question 2

“Too full of the milk of human kindness”

Answer 2

• LM is doubting the capabilities of her husband
• Her lack of compassion & faith in Macbeths abilities is encapsulated in the belief that he has too much ‘milk’
• Making him appear almost bovine in nature
• Connotations of ‘milk’ are so heavily entwined with motherhood & child raising
• its our first insight into the way LM uses Macbeths perceived lack of masculinity against him. ‘Too full’ is a criticism, she desires to change it to achieve her own ends.
• Her rejection of maternal instincts aligns with her rejection of weakness, reinforcing her unnatural, almost monstrous, ambition (‘links to take my milk for gall’)

Question 3

“All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand”

Answer 3

• Mirrors ‘Neptune’s ocean’, this is not accidental, and the contrast with her earlier statement that ‘a little water clears us of this deed’ this euphemism used to conceal the truth shows how regret in unescapable.
• Both of them have asked for something strong to remove their guilt.
• LM starts to infantilise herself here, calling herself ‘little’.
• Before she wanted to be strong and masculine, now she feels vulnerable and weak.
• Her entire persona has altered.