![]() 'unsex me' - she asks for her feminine qualities to be removed.'Come, you spirits' / 'Come.you murd'ring ministers' - Lady Macbeth feels powerful enough to summon and command evil spirits.Th'effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,Īnd take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers , Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between Stop up th'access and passage to remorse , That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me hereĪnd fill me from the crown to the toe topfull It is worth remembering that in the original performances of the play the part of Lady Macbeth would have been played by a man and this would have helped to emphasise the character's masculine qualities. Lady Macbeth appears to be a much more feisty character with ambitions and desires of her own these are characteristics that could imply a lack of femininity. Their main purpose was to have children and support their menfolk. Wives were little more than the property of their husbands and had no legal rights. In both Shakespeare's time and in the time when the play takes place, women had a much lower status than would be the case today. She is also aware that she will be going to hell for her sins. In particular, she recalls the night of Duncan's murder and the part she played in persuading her husband to act. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear? Who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?Īs the guilt-stricken Lady Macbeth sleepwalks, she remembers all the evil things she and her husband have done and tries to wash imaginary blood from her hands (Out, damned spot: out, I say!). She cannot bear to think of what she has done and eventually dies alone and unmourned even by her husband. Lady Macbeth seems to go from being someone with no conscience at all to someone who is overwhelmed by feelings of guilt. The word 'double' also links Lady Macbeth to the evil of the witches - they use the word repeatedly in one of their spells. She almost overdoes it when she exaggerates 'In every point twice done and then done double'. Lady Macbeth welcomes Duncan to her home and flatters him so that he will not suspect a thing. ![]() Were poor and single business to contend /Īgainst those honours deep and broad wherewith / In every point twice done and then done double, / When he hesitates, she is there to urge Macbeth on. When Macbeth expresses doubts, she uses every trick she can think of to make sure he carries out their plan to murder Duncan. To the outside world, Lady Macbeth seems like the ideal supportive wife but this is part of her ability to be deceptive. This suggests that even at this stage she knows what she is doing is wrong. It is interesting that she describes the necessary ruthless streak as an 'illness'. She is insistent that Macbeth will become King ('shalt be what thou art promised') However, she recognises that he is 'too full o'th'milk of human kindness' and that this could stand in their way. Lady Macbeth's determination to succeed is clear here. It is too full o'th'milk of human kindness / What thou art promised yet do I fear thy nature, / Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be / Once she has worked out a plan, nothing will turn her from that course until her ambition is fulfilled. She can only be Queen if he becomes King so when he hesitates she displays enough ambition for both of them. Lady Macbeth is, perhaps, even more determined than her husband. She becomes unable to sleep, and mentally unstable, eventually dying in tragic circumstances. She uses her influence to persuade Macbeth that they are taking the right course of action and even takes part in the crime herself.įor a while she is able to suppress her actions but eventually she becomes unable to deal with the guilt of what she has done. As soon as an opportunity to gain power presents itself, she has a plan in mind. Lady Macbeth is even more ambitious and ruthless than her husband.
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