Macbeth Quotes To Show Lady Macbeth As Superior And Macbeth As Weak

Question 1

“My hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white.”

Answer 1

Act 2 Scene 2

Lady Macbeth calls Macbeth a coward. While both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are guilty of Duncan’s murder, only Macbeth feels guilt for the murder. Lady Macbeth ridicules Macbeth for behaving so weak and naïve. He is supposed to be a man who is brave and fearless, but instead he cowers like an infant.

Question 2

“To full of the milk of human kindness.”

Answer 2

Act 1 Scene 5

Conveys Macbeth as weak as despite Macbeth’s reputation as a brave warrior, Macbeth also has a strong sense of compassion which lady Macbeth is trying to remove from him. Milk is mild, natural and white which symbolise purity and compassion.

Question 3

“When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more the man.”

Answer 3

Act 1 Scene 7

In this quote Lady Macbeth is manipulating her husband Macbeth by speaking of his manhood. She gains more and more control over Macbeth as the play goes on. This shows how Lady Macbeth usurps Macbeth’s position as the head of the house and claims it for herself.
By doing this, she is contradicting the accepted social hierarchy of the Jacobean era which stated that men were above women in the household.

Question 4

“Unsex me here.”

Answer 4

Act 1 Scene 5

Shakespeare connects Lady Macbeth with the forces of evil in the play when she calls on the spirits of darkness in Act I Scene 5. Her language is commanding: ‘Come, you spirits’. The imperative ‘Come’ could suggest she has some control over the spirits, or alternatively show that she is pleading. She then asks them to ‘unsex me here’. This implies that Lady Macbeth regards her own female nature to be a hindrance to her plans of convincing Macbeth to kill Duncun.

Question 5

“Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent underneath”

Answer 5

Act 1 Scene 6

Technique: “Look like the innocent flower” is a simile, and “be the serpent” is a metaphor.

The symbolism here shows that Lady Macbeth wishes her husband to appear well-meaning and gentle to hide his deceit. The symbol also has connotations of temptation and lost innocence through the serpent’s link to the biblical story of Adam and Eve.