"…unsex me here,
and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty"
Lady Macbeth uses violent imagery in here monologue. She uses images of blood and darkness such as,
"…make thick my blood,
stop up the access and passage to remorse…"
This meaning how she would make herself insensitive by blocking up all the pathways by which remorse can reach her heart. This language would seem very unwomanly to a Shakespearean audience.
Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that Duncan is to visit their castle tomorrow night. Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to leave everything up to her.
Scene5 of this act 1 is the most-quoted, most familiar part of this play. Until this point Macbeth has been tormented with visions, nightmares and disturbances in his sleep while Lady Macbeth scolds him for his weakness. Now the audience witnesses the way in which the murders have preyed on Lady Macbeth as well. In her sleepwalking, Lady Macbeth plays out the washing theme that runs throughout the play. After killing Duncan, she flippantly tells Macbeth that "a little water clears us of this deed;" now it is evident that this is not true, as the sleepwalking lady tries in vain to scrub the stain of blood off her hands. Lady Macbeth's stained hands are reminiscent of the Biblical mark of Cain the mark that God placed on Cain after he killed his brother Abel in the story of Genesis. Like Cain's mark, the stain of blood follows Lady Macbeth and reveals her guilt to the watching doctor and gentlewoman. However, Cain's mark is a sign from God that protects Cain from others' revenge; Lady Macbeth's mark, on the other hand, does not protect her from death, and she dies only a few scenes later.
The doctor's behavior in this scene is interesting in that it closely resembles the work of a psychoanalyst, but precedes the "father of psychoanalysis," Freud, by centuries. Like a Freudian psychoanalyst, the doctor observes Lady Macbeth's dreams and uses her words to infer the cause of her distress. Like a psychoanalyst, too, the doctor decides to "set down what comes from her" as he listens .After witnessing her distress, the doctor declares it the result of an "infected mind" this too sounds like the diagnosis of a modern-day psychiatrist.
Back at Dunsinane, the Scottish royal home, a gentlewoman who waits on Lady Macbeth has summoned a doctor because Lady Macbeth has been walking in her sleep. The doctor reports that he has watched her for two nights already and has not seen anything strange. The gentlewoman describes how she has seen Lady Macbeth rise, dress, leave her room, write something on a piece of paper, read it and seal it, and return to bed, all without waking up. When the doctor asks if the Lady said anything while sleepwalking, the gentlewoman says that what the Lady said she does not dare to repeat. They are interrupted by the sleepwalking Lady Macbeth, who enters carrying a candle. The gentlewoman reports that Lady Macbeth asks to have light by her all through the night. The doctor and the gentlewoman watch as Lady Macbeth rubs her hands as if washing them and says " yet here's a spot . . . . Out, damned spot, out I say!" As she continues to "wash" her hands, her words betray her guilt to the watchers. She seems to be reliving the events of the nights of Duncan and Banquo's deaths. She cannot get the stain or smell of blood off her hand: "will these hands ne'er be clean? . . . . All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." The doctor is shocked and understands that Lady Macbeth's words have heavy implications. The sleepwalking lady imagines she hears knocking at the gate and returns to her chamber. The doctor concludes that Lady Macbeth needs a priest's help, not a physician's, and takes his leave, warning that he and the gentlewoman had better not reveal what they have seen and heard.
" Inside the castle, Macbeth prepares to do battle with Malcolm and Macduff. He learns that Lady Macbeth has committed suicide and hardly mourns her death. He is hardened by his newfound life as a criminal and is thus devoid of all proper emotion and compassion for his wife. A messenger interrupts Macbeth’s reverie and tells him that he saw the trees of Birnam Wood moving towards the castle. In reality, this is Malcolm’s army carrying the trees before itself. Not believing what the messenger says, Macbeth looks out the window to verify his statement. To his horror, the messenger is right. He resolves to fight Malcolm and Macduff anyway and die honorably.
Shakespeare creates definite senses of evil through what is said and heard, like the end of Macbeth's soliloquy. There is a thin line between good and evil in the play, and it is easy to over step the mark, which Macbeth does. He goes from war hero to a corrupted king in a matter of days. The possible turning point is when Macbeth hears a prayer but cannot pronounce 'Amen', and he himself thinks of this deeply. He knows himself that what he has done was wrong, and he acknowledges this by refusing to return to the scene of the murder. Shakespeare uses blood to almost 'stain' Macbeth's mind, marking him permanently as a murderer. Macbeth knows that a water can never get rid of the guilt. Shakespeare’s use of language and structure manages to create tension right up to the till the end. He manages to gradually build it up and then release it a little, and then increase it until finally the act of regicide takes place. His use of dramatic irony, the supernatural and indecision all combine to keep the audience on the edge of their seats throughout these scenes. His use of the right language in the right places helps the characters and the play to become really believable.
Throughout the play, the supernatural plays a major role. A wise choice by Shakespeare at the time and it still works today.
