Macbeth: Lady Macbeth Flashcards
How can Lady Macbeth be viewed according to the character profile?
Lady Macbeth can be viewed in two ways:
1) As an antagonist who drives her husband toward murder and bloodshed despite his protests
2) As a tragic heroine who starts in a position of glory but falls from grace due to her own error in judgment
What is Lady Macbeth’s social position at the beginning of the play?
Lady Macbeth is the wife of a Thane (Macbeth), living in luxury with a good reputation. Her husband owns land given to him by the king. She can’t possess land herself. She appears to be childless at the time of the play, though it’s suggested she may have had children at some point.
What are the possible motivations for Lady Macbeth’s actions in the play?
Possible motivations include:
1) Fulfilling her role as a devoted wife supporting her husband’s aspirations
2) Her own ambitions and goals (becoming queen and moving up the social ladder)
3) Compensation for her lost children and purpose as a woman
How does Lady Macbeth symbolize ‘appearances vs. reality’ in the play?
Lady Macbeth exploits the divide between appearances and reality by:
- Manipulating people’s perceptions and prejudices
- Using her feminine image to hide her violent intentions
- Instructing Macbeth to ‘look like th’innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t’
- Transferring her desires and plans into Macbeth while remaining behind the scenes
- Appearing feminine outwardly while attempting to rid herself of feminine qualities
What is the ‘femme fatale’ archetype and how does Lady Macbeth embody it?
A femme fatale is a mysterious and seductive woman who uses charm to ensnare men and lead them into dangerous situations. Lady Macbeth embodies this by:
- Threatening to emasculate Macbeth
- Using her power as his wife to manipulate him
- Using sexuality/seduction to control him in some productions
- Driving Macbeth to his death through her ambition and plotting
How does Lady Macbeth parallel the Biblical story of Eve and the Fall of Man?
Parallels include:
- Like Eve tempting Adam, Lady Macbeth tempts Macbeth to sin
- She ‘pours spirits in his ear’ similar to Eve convincing Adam to eat the forbidden fruit
- She is often interpreted as the root of Macbeth’s evil, just as Eve was viewed as the cause of mankind’s fall
- Both stories involve a woman leading to the downfall of an honorable man
What is Lady Macbeth’s relationship with motherhood in the play?
Lady Macbeth has a complicated relationship with motherhood:
- It seems she had children at some point, but they died
- She rejects the maternal role completely in her ‘unsex me here’ speech
- She claims she would have ‘dashed the brains out’ of her own child rather than break her word
- Her rejection of motherhood was seen as particularly threatening in Jacobean society
How does Lady Macbeth challenge gender norms of Shakespeare’s time?
Lady Macbeth challenges gender norms by:
- Having a dominant role in her marriage
- Being given multiple soliloquies (usually reserved for male characters)
- Portrayed as smart, cunning, and bloodthirsty rather than weak or submissive
- Asking spirits to ‘unsex’ her and fill her with cruelty
- Criticizing Macbeth’s manhood and associating masculinity with violence
- Taking charge in planning Duncan’s murder
What are Lady Macbeth’s key characteristics at the beginning of the play?
Key characteristics include:
- Ambitious: More determined and violent in her ambition than Macbeth
- Manipulative: Skilled at using rhetoric and emotional manipulation
- Supernatural connections: Associated with witchcraft and dark forces
- Decisive: Doesn’t hesitate or deliberate
- Cruel: Willing to sacrifice morality and natural order for power
- Dominant: Controls Macbeth like a puppet
How does Lady Macbeth’s character develop through the middle of the play?
In the middle of the play (Acts 2-3), Lady Macbeth:
- Remains calm and takes charge during Duncan’s murder
- Shows one moment of vulnerability (couldn’t kill Duncan herself as he resembled her father)
- Demonstrates her acting skills by feigning grief
- Begins showing signs of anxiety and paranoia
- Gradually loses control over Macbeth
- Shows frustration with Macbeth’s guilt and fear
How does Lady Macbeth’s character change by the end of the play?
By the end of the play, Lady Macbeth:
- Is completely overcome by guilt and fear
- Suffers from sleepwalking and hallucinations
- Speaks in prose rather than blank verse (indicating her mental deterioration)
- Has incoherent, frantic speech
- Is obsessed with washing invisible blood from her hands
- Becomes isolated and eventually takes her own life
- Is barely mentioned by other characters, showing her decline in significance
What is the significance of Lady Macbeth’s ‘unsex me here’ speech?
The speech is significant because:
- It shows her dedication to evil and ambition
- Reveals her willingness to sacrifice her femininity and humanity
- Connects her to the supernatural and witchcraft
- Demonstrates her view that feminine qualities are weaknesses
- Shows her desire to escape the gender binary altogether
- Establishes her as unnatural and threatening to social order
- Contains imagery of altered bodily fluids (blood, milk) suggesting a complete transformation
How does Lady Macbeth use guilt and remorse to manipulate Macbeth?
Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth regarding guilt by:
- Mocking his fears and hesitations
- Questioning his manhood when he feels guilty
- Dismissing the importance of conscience
- Claiming washing blood away will remove guilt (‘a little water clears us of this deed’)
- Portraying herself as unfazed by the murder to make him feel weak
- Using his loyalty and love for her to push him forward
What is the irony in Lady Macbeth’s statement ‘a little water clears us of this deed’?
The irony is that:
- Lady Macbeth believes physical cleansing can remove guilt
- Later, she becomes obsessed with washing imaginary blood from her hands
- She learns guilt cannot be washed away so easily
- The statement shows her initial dismissal of psychological consequences
- Her sleepwalking scene directly contradicts this belief
- She becomes destroyed by the very guilt she claimed could be easily washed away
What does Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene reveal about her character?
The sleepwalking scene reveals:
- Her overwhelming guilt and mental deterioration
- The conflict between her ambition and conscience
- Her fragmented sense of self
- How she has lost all power and control
- The psychological toll of her actions
- Her obsession with blood that cannot be washed away
- Her regrets over what they have done
- Her isolation from Macbeth and others
How does the power dynamic between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth change throughout the play?
Power dynamic changes:
- Beginning: Lady Macbeth is dominant, controlling and manipulating Macbeth
- Middle: Both share power but begin to separate as Macbeth acts independently
- After Duncan’s murder: Lady Macbeth gradually loses influence
- End: Macbeth excludes her from his plans, making decisions without her
- Final stage: Lady Macbeth loses all power, descending into madness while Macbeth continues his violent path alone
What literary techniques does Shakespeare use to develop Lady Macbeth’s character?
Literary techniques include:
- Soliloquies revealing her inner thoughts
- Contrast between her public and private personas
- Connection to supernatural elements
- Imagery of blood, milk, and body fluids
- Shift from verse to prose (showing her mental decline)
- Rhetorical devices in her manipulative speeches
- Biblical and classical allusions
- Use of minor characters (doctor, gentlewoman) to comment on her condition
- Dramatic irony regarding her eventual guilt
How does Lady Macbeth’s character reflect Shakespeare’s views on female power?
Her character may suggest Shakespeare viewed female power as:
- Unnatural and destabilizing to social order
- Connected to supernatural/evil forces
- Requiring the rejection of feminine qualities
- Temporary and ultimately self-destructive
- Dependent on manipulation rather than direct authority
- Achieved through influencing men rather than independent action
- A threat to natural hierarchy
- Yet also complex and capable of psychological depth
What is the significance of Lady Macbeth’s suicide in the play?
Her suicide signifies:
- The ultimate consequence of guilt and ambition
- The failure of her plan to achieve happiness through crime
- The psychological toll of violating natural order
- Her complete fall from power and influence
- Shakespeare’s moral message about the consequences of evil
- The contrast with Macbeth who dies fighting rather than by his own hand
- The tragic arc of her character from powerful manipulator to broken victim
How does Lady Macbeth’s character emphasise the theme of ‘ambition’ in the play?
Lady Macbeth emphasises the theme of ambition by:
- Having more intense and immediate ambition than Macbeth
- Being willing to sacrifice her humanity for power
- Showing how ambition can corrupt completely
- Demonstrating the psychological toll of unchecked ambition
- Revealing how quickly ambitious goals can turn hollow
- Illustrating how the pursuit of power leads to paranoia and isolation
- Embodying the tragic consequences of putting ambition above morality
