“Glamis thou art, and Cawdor;
And shall be what thou art promised
Lady Macbeth feels that her husband gentle nature will be to gentle to be able to become traitor and backstab his dear friend King Duncan who has treated him like his younger brother and has awarded his by crowning him Thane Of Cawdor and Glamis.
“Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness”
There is an element in Lady Macbeth’s attitude strongly reminiscent of the witches. She talks of trying to change Macbeth’s soft character by trying pour some spirits into his ear like some potion to alter his soft character. She invokes evil spirits to defeminise her, to dehumanise her. She speaks in blank verse; the strong rhythm of iambic pentameters shows her confidence and her motive.
“That I may pour my spirits in thine ear”
Her balanced use of words and phrases within the line further emphasises her control of language and thought and the ideas that are going through her mind.
“May read strange matters. To beguile the time”
The messenger comes with good news that King Duncan “comes here to-night”. Shakespeare shows Lady Macbeth’s ability to switch focus “what is your tidings”. Lady Macbeth is furious that Macbeth failed to inform her about her that the king was coming, so that she could have made preparations. She doesn’t mention to the messenger what preparations she is going to be making and for what purpose, but Shakespeare creates a sense of dramatic irony because the audience know that she has the perfect opportunity to the preparations to Kill King Duncan.
“Thou ‘rt mad to say it,
Is not thy master with him? who, were’t so,
Would have inform’d for preparation”
Lady Macbeth is very intelligent, despite the excitement of the perfect occasion to murder king Duncan, and she will become queen and her husband will become King, But she remains calm and is able to control herself and is able to use coded language, which doesn’t give anyone the chance to feel suspicious.
“To catch the nearest way”
Lady Macbeth is seen strong and confident and very intelligent but she also has an evil side. She wants to be filled with cruelty “come you spirits” so she will call evil spirits to help her. She will give up all the gentle, tender qualities of a woman, so that she can become sexless, pitiless fiend. She also does this so she will not be able to feel any guilty conscience.
“The raven himself is a hoarse,
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan,
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits,
That tend on mortal thoughts! Unsex me here”
She use hard “c” sounds in her second soliloquy, speaking from “the raven himself” as if he were to say “croaks”, “come”, “crown”, “cruelty” etc.
When Macbeth arrives she uses flattery and calls him by the very words of the witches, “Great Glamis! Worthy Cawdor!” she tries to tell him indirectly that he is to be hailed king. Once again Shakespeare show us Lady Macbeth’s slyness to be able to switch tone, to be able to flatter her husband into persuasion.
“Greater than both, by the all hail hereafter!”
Lady Macbeth show her authority by preventing Macbeth from speaking after coming back from a battle he would normally expect his wife to be kind loving and affectionate. She is able to immediately make her self clear by putting her foot down and telling him that she is going to be in charge of the murder.
“And you shall put/
This night’s great business into my dispatch”
Lady Macbeth makes it perfectly that Duncan will not see the morning again. Making it perfectly clear that she is in charge and she has planned this without him and she knows what’s best for him. She also tries to tell Macbeth that he must obey her and finish the job like she has planned.
“O never shall that morrow see”
Lady Macbeth end her speech with a rhyming couplet to emphasise the wisdom behind this act, she know the prize is there for the taking, but she will have to capitalise on the perfect opportunity to persuade her husband to kill Duncan.
“Which shall to all our nights and days to come,
Give solely sovereign and say masterdom”
Lady Macbeth's language shows her evil, dominance and power. Lady Macbeth is able to witch focus we see this when the messenger enters and she greets him by saying “what is your tidings”. She uses flattery as a way of trying to persuade Macbeth’s to kill Duncan. In all Lady Macbeth is see as a woman who is over powering and sly, she uses the help of evil spirits and loses her feminine touch so see can see the witches prophecy come true, which prompts her to take the leading role and to believe in the prophecy.
Act 5 Scene 1
In act 5 scene 1 Lady Macbeth is seen suffering from her guilty conscience, the gentle woman and the doctor are seen discussing her state of mind and her symptoms of “her rise from her bed, throw her night-gown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon ‘t , read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed;” this is seen as a “great perturbation in nature” these are clearly the acts of depression. In contrast to the strong powerful and confident woman that we saw in act 1 scene 5. The gentlewoman talk about her illness and refuses to talk about wat witnessed Lady Macbeth saying. It seems as if that the gentlewoman who has been around her and seen her condition deteriorate, she seems to know, that she and Macbeth had planned and killed Duncan because she says “Neither to you nor anyone, having no witness to confirm my speech” even though the doctor persists to know what exactly she herd Lady Macbeth saying, the doctor gently opens his heart and tries to understand the reason behind Lady Macbeth’s condition when he says to the gentlewoman, “You may to me, and ‘tis most meet you should”
Lady Macbeth enters with a candle, this seems to suggest that she is scared of the dark and she is using it for protection. She seems to be using the candle more often than she use to.
“Why, it stood by her: she has light by her con-
tinually; ‘tis her command”
The gentlewoman tells the doctor about how she constantly washes her hands. Lady Macbeth is not in reality, her sense seems to be “shut” as she washes her hands in her imagination. This is another piece of evidence, which suggests her poor state of mind and condition. She does this because her of her previous experiences in act 1 scene when she tries to wash the blood of King Duncan’s of her hands.
“It is an accustomed action with her,
to seem thus washing her hands.
I have known her to continue in
This a quarter of an hour.”
Lady Macbeth doesn’t seem to say much, in contrast with act 1 scene 5 where she is seen taking a leading role but this all changes, but now she in seen talking in prose, this doesn’t seem to resemble the language of a great and powerful lady. She also resembles what she said in act 1 scene 5.
“Yet here’s a spot”
Lady Macbeth talks in a child like nursery rhyme, she talks of Lady Macduff’s murder. Lady Macbeth’s language seems to have changed and her choice of words are those of a person suffering from severe depression, this is in contrast from act1 scene 5 where her language in powerful, sly and persuasive.
“The thane of Fife had wife….
One; two: why, then
‘Tis time to do’t.”
Lady Macbeth is seen reliving the experience on the night of the murder of king Duncan. She re-acts the first murder scene when she took the initiative and organised a stumbling Macbeth.
“No more o’ that, my lord,
No more o’ that;
You mar all with this starting.”
Her Language indicates that she is very disturbed. She believes that all the beautiful smells of Arabia cannot take away the blood the manifestation of her guilt. She is still badly tormented by the past and her confidence has dropped she thinks that there’s nothing going for her.
“Here’s the smell of the blood still:
All the perfumes of Arabia,
will not sweeten this little hand….
Hell is murky! Fie my lord-fie”
Lady Macbeth relives past conversation with Macbeth about Duncan, she tries to repair the past but she knows its too late. Lady Macbeth remembers what she said to Macbeth on the night of the murder when there was the knocking on the door. She remembers when she tell Macbeth to put his night gown and pretend as id they were asleep so people will not become suspicious. She also remembers about the ghost of Banquo, Lady Macbeth doesn’t know much about the death of Banquo because Macbeth keeps a secret from her.
“To bed, to bed;
There’s knocking at the gate….
I tell you again, Banquo’s is buried;
He cannot come out on’s grave”
Lady Macbeth tries to get away from all the suffering and torment whichhas overcome her in a negative way. She tries to forget about the whole thingby sleeping, rather like how a child will run to bed or pull a blanket over his head when he is scared of something.
“To bed, to bed, to bed”
Lady Macbeth suffers from her guilty conscience. She walks in her sleep, and dreams that she and her husband are murdering King Duncan. She is a totally different woman compare to what we saw from her strong, confident character in act 1 scene 5 she is unable to cope with the consequences of her action.
