Single-minded & Decisive Flashcards
Describe our first impression of LM when she is reading Macbeth’s letter informing her of the ‘good news’ of the prophecies
we witness a determined and decisive woman
Explain what LM means by this quote (2)
“Glamis, thou art and Cawdor and shalt be what thou art promised”
She is going to ensure that the crown will be her husband’s.
She speaks as if the promise of the golden round’ already gives Macbeth the right to take it.
The single-minded woman however sees one obstacle in the way of achieving the ‘golden crown’. It is her husband’s nature. Explain this.
His sense of decency and desire to do what is right may stand in the way of fulfilling an ambition which they have talked about in the past, the “things forgotton”. He is “too full of the milk of human kindness
LM knows Macbeth’s flaw is his sense of decency and desire to do what is right. WHat does this tell us about their relationship?
She knows her husband well
After LM reads Macbeth’s letter. How does she react?
She immediately wants to take control saying ‘Hie thee hither that I may pour my spirits in thine ear’. She is determined to eradicate any doubts he has, any moral considerations.
Explain the following quote:
‘art not without ambition but without the illness should attend it’. That word ‘illness’
She knows he desires the crown, ‘art not without ambition but without the illness should attend it’. That word ‘illness’, shows she knows what is right and wrong but she has dismissed morality in favour of a practical attitude to life.
How does LM have a tunnel-vision of the future?
Killing Duncan is merely a ‘business’ in her eyes, a practical challenge. This is a woman with a tunnel- vision of the future.
How does LM decide to support her husband in this endeavour?
To be a supportive focused partner of her husband’s, in this endeavour, she now calls on the forces of darkness to ‘unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe top, full of direst cruelty’.
‘unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe top, full of direst cruelty’.
Explain this quote.
This is a chilling rejection of her nature, more of her decisiveness.
How does LM’s practical nature Immediately assert itself when she hears of Duncan’s proposed visit to the castle?
Duncan will never leave that castle alive. There is not one shred of sympathy for the man. The king’s visit will be ‘the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements’. There is not a trace of guilt about the murder, not one hesitation about the morality of the act. She is amoral.
What is the right of action to LM that makes her cold, calculating and callous?
For Lady Macbeth, the right action is the one that advances her husband in his career. If that means murdering the good king, then she will set about planning that. She is cold, calculating, callous
How does LM treat her husband’s moral struggle? (one word)
That is clearly seen in the way she treats Macbeth’s moral struggle with such contempt.
‘was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself?” Explain what LM is actually saying simply.
She accuses him of being a cowerd, ‘was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself?”
“to alter favour ever is to fear’.
WHat does LM mean by this to Macbeth?
She bullies him into carrying out the murder suggesting that he will never get another opportunity like it, “to alter favour ever is to fear’.
If he turns down the good news of the prophecies, then he will always regret it, she says.
How does LM insult her husband’s honour of his word?
She mocks his hesitation telling him how she would ‘pluck’ the child from her breast and ‘dash’ its brains out on the ground before she would ever go back on something she had decided.
