She uses phrases such as “unsex me”, “direst cruelty”, “make thick my blood” and “take my milk for gall” which show that she wants to become physically and mentally powerful, and full of poison. She wants to become sexless so that she does not weaken and lose her purpose.
She calls for hell to cover the deed and mentions her “keen knife” as if at first, she were planning to murder Duncan because she thought Macbeth would not.
When Macbeth enters, she tells him that they must murder Duncan. She picks up on his obvious distress and says:
“….look like th’innocent flower,
But be the serpent under’t…” This shows that she is worried that Macbeth might lose control of himself and confess his crime. This is ironic because it is Lady Macbeth who loses control later in the play.
Act V scene 1 features a Waiting Gentlewoman and a Doctor discussing Lady Macbeth sleepwalking. Again, this scene features a letter, or message.
She rubs her hands to try and remove imaginary blood stains, “out, damned spot”. This is an image of her paranoia. The imaginary blood spot acts as a damning beacon.
In this scene, Lady Macbeth is very weak and agitated, compared to Act I scene 5 where she was very focused. She wanted hell to cover the deed “dunnest smoke”, but now she sees hell as “murky” and dark. Now she has to have light with her all the time because she is scared. She repeats a lot of words and phrases such as “to bed, to bed, to bed” which shows her weakening from her powerful language of before.
She has still had to direct Macbeth, but it has all been too much, and her conscience has overcome her and her guilt has become too intense. She has lost control of Macbeth and herself, which is ironic because before, she was controlling Macbeth.
In Act I scene 5 she gives herself away and the Doctor talks of “Unnatural deeds” yet she wanted to become unnatural in order to do the deed in the first place.
Another irony is when Lady Macbeth is repeating what she has told Macbeth and she says:
“…What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to accompt? …”
in front of the doctor and gentlewoman, and the Doctor thinks that only God can forgive her, and it is beyond his practice when he says “More she needs the divine than the physician”
The fact that Act I scene 5 is mostly in iambic pentameter and Act V scene 1 is mainly in prose shows Lady Macbeth’s loss of control.
Both scenes mention the themes of: death, of Duncan; power and control; guilt and unnatural behavior. The difference is, the roles gradually reverse, and Macbeth becomes more dominant over Lady Macbeth. Death is obviously mentioned in the first scene where Lady Macbeth is talking of murdering Duncan and in the second scene where she repeats what she has said to Macbeth about the murder.
The theme of power and control is mentioned in the first scene when Lady Macbeth is trying to convince Macbeth that they should murder Duncan and in the second scene where Lady Macbeth’s complete loss of control is shown.
Guilt is evident in Macbeth in the first scene and very obvious in Lady Macbeth in the second scene as it is the cause for her downfall.
Lady Macbeth shows unnatural behaviour in both scenes, firstly in the “unsex me” speech and secondly with her madness.
Blood is a recurring image, first of Lady Macbeth’s and then of Duncan’s. There is also the imagery of the hands, which first hold the dagger, and then show evidence of the deed.
Both scenes use imagery and show status by the style they are written in. They both have dramatic impact, but in completely opposite ways.