Lady Macbeth
A Woman Act and Think Like a Man Lady Macbeth is the most famous female character in one of the William Shakespeare’s’ plays, which is called Macbeth. In this great play, Lady Macbeth is the first instigator who plans to murder Duncan. Indeed, Lady Macbeth is an ambitious, powerful, and ruthless woman. When the time Macbeth sends her a letter and tells her the prediction from the three witches, she starts to plan ahead and staged a revolt to against the current kingship. Additionally, in the Shakespeare’s time, women do not have much authorities and they would not get many respect from others. Nonetheless, in this play, Lady Macbeth has a very noble status, and many people respect her and treat her well. Most significantly, Macbeth often listens
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and obey her. A.C. Bradley states, “Lady Macbeth is the most commanding and perhaps the most awe-inspiring figure that Shakespeare drew” (Lecture X, 38). In other word, Lady Macbeth’s essence is ambitious, she is eager to have the power and control everything, especially on the matter of Macbeth becomes a King. Despite of Lady Macbeth’s horrible nature of crimes, her inner self is very fragile and virtuous. As a result, she eventually committed suicide due to she could not bear her guilt. Additionally, throughout the play, Lady Macbeth keep goes between her worries and thoughts toward Macbeth, she worries that Macbeth is not cruel and sinister enough to get what he desires. And eventually, through the play, she falls into a desire of become a man, so that he could do everything by herself and even could get the crown for her King. Moreover, in the play, Lady Macbeth has many soliloquies, which is a dramatic self to self conversation. It is a convention when a character is alone and speaks her thoughts out loud to herself. Throughout the soliloquies, audience can know more about the character’s inner feeling and thoughts. Besides, in the first two soliloquies from Lady Macbeth in Act One Scene five clearly illustrates how Lady Macbeth behaves and think toward the matter of Macbeth becomes King in the future due to the predictions from the witches. At the same time, through these two self to self conversation, audiences can realize how ruthless Lady Macbeth is. Moreover, the first time Lady Macbeth appears to the audiences is when she receives the letter from Macbeth. In the letter, Macbeth tells her that he becomes the Thane of Glaims because he won a war, at the same time, Macbeth tells her the prophecy from the witches. By the time Lady Macbeth finished reading the letter, she feels excited and worried, she claims, “Glaims thous art, and Cawdor; and shalt be, / What thou art promised” (I.v.11-12). Lady Macbeth restates that her husband now becomes both Thane of Glaims and Cawdor. Later she says, “shalt be, / What thou art promised,” which means that she takes the prophecy seriously and willing to do everything she can to ensure it will come true. Moreover, the word “shall be” reflects to Lady Macbeth’s belief of her husband’s position of King, which is already guaranteed by the destiny. Therefore, she is glad to do whatever she can to make sure Macbeth will be the King. Further. while Lady Macbeth is indulging in her excitement, she suddenly afraid that Macbeth is not firm enough to use violence to obtain what he desires. Meanwhile, Lady Macbeth starts to worry Macbeth’s kindness by saying: Yet do I fear thy nature; It’s too full o’th’ milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way (I.v,12-14).
Lady Macbeth knows well on her husband. At this point, she describes Macbeth’s sympathetic as “the milk of human kindness,” which clarifies Macbeth is not dare to use any sinister conspiracies to get what he wants. In fact, Lady Macbeth notices her husband is ambitious, but she worries that he is not as ruthless as she is. She is afraid that he is unwilling or do not have the heart “to catch the nearest way” to be a king, which is to murder Duncan (I.v.14-16).
Additionally, Lady Macbeth thinks her husband is lack of ruthlessness, she clearly aware that Macbeth is ambition enough to be a king; however, he is lack of ruthlessness. She sequentially, says: What thous wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou’dst have, great Glaims” (I.v.16-18).
The first two lines of this passage have an alliteration with the “h” sound, which is “highly” and “holily.” The simple meaning of these two words is whatever a person wants, he often wants many or “highly.” On the other side, when a person wants to have something without doing anything wrong, that is “holily.” To put them back to the play, Lady Macbeth says Macbeth is yearning for the crown; however, he is reluctant to murder Duncan due to his soft-heart.
Lady Macbeth knows deeply in the heart that Macbeth does not want to be a king by “play false,” which betraying and cheating on Duncan. Nonetheless, Macbeth wants to get something that does not belong to him, which is the meaning of “wrongly win.” Meanwhile, Lady Macbeth continuously saying that Macbeth is a man who wants to be a king, but willing to do anything sinister. And in the last line of the passage, she calls Macbeth “Glaims” because he is now the Thane of Glamis, a region of Scotland. Moreover, because Lady Macbeth knows her husband wants to be a king but does not have encouraged to do dirty jobs. As a result, Lady Macbeth clarifies Macbeth’s scruples, “That which cries “Thus thou must do,” if thou have it” (I.v.19).
Lady Macbeth tries to encourage and motivate Macbeth to kill Duncan. She wants to tell Macbeth, if he is really want to be the King, killing Duncan is the fast and only way to satisfy his desire of becoming a
Lord.
Although Lady Macbeth knows what Macbeth is thinking, she still believes her influences can affect him; as a result, she prays Macbeth can come home faster. She shouts out loud: …Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear And chastise with the valor of my tongue All the impedes thee from the golden round (I.v.21-34)
“Hie thee hither” means Lady Macbeth wants her husband to come home faster, so she can talk to him and persuade him to “catch the nearest way”, which is murder Duncan. Meanwhile, there is a metaphor that compares the “pouring evil spirits” to the thoughts that Lady Macbeth will be instilled into Macbeth’s mind later. Lady Macbeth wants to use her ideal to influence and convince Macbeth to kill Duncan. Thus, she is going to tell him that killing Duncan is to prevent him from having the crown. Besides, the “golden round” in the last line of this passage refers to the crown, which symbolizes the position of Lord. Lastly, in Lady Macbeth’s mind, the prophecy that told by the three witches is called “fate and metaphysical aid” (I.v.25). She deeply believes the prophecy because Macbeth is already becoming the Thane of Cawdor, which is part of the truth. Thus, she drew to believe Macbeth will be the king soon due to the witches’ prediction.
Overall of this soliloquy from Lady Macbeth, through this soliloquy, audiences can find out how Lady Macbeth is a woman with strong masculinity, courage, and bravery. However, Macbeth is a man who has a kind heart, and full of compassion, which is how her wife describes him. Furthermore, audiences can realize Lady Macbeth fits into the role of male gender in the play due to her persuasiveness, intrepidity, and manipulability. Besides, in the movie scene, Lady Macbeth speaks to herself with a very sneaky sound, and her sound is instant which shows how she ruthless is toward the matter of murder Duncan.
Furthermore, after the last soliloquy from Lady Macbeth, a message comes in and tells her the current King Duncan will come to her castle tonight. At that moment, Lady Macbeth is sure that he will die very soon. After the messager leave, she starts another soliloquy, says: The raven himself is hoarse The croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements (I.v.34-36).
It is obvious “raven” often represents death and evil. Raven flies above her castle and shout out the miserable sound, which makes Lady Macbeth deeply believe her plan of murder Duncan at night will be successes. Besides, when messager tells her that Duncan will come to her castle, the message tells the new with expressionless and sounds “hoarse” and rasping. Thus, the “raven” is also reflected to the messager, who foreshadows Duncan’s death with the dead tone.
Additionally, Lady Macbeth is very eager to murder Duncan; as a result, she wishes she can be a man who is aggressive and masculine. “Come, you spirit, / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, / And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full, / Of direst cruelty” (I.v.36-39). Lady Macbeth wants to “unsex” herself, she wants to get rid of all her female qualities, such as morality and benevolence. She hopes to “fill full of cruelty from her bottom to the top,” so she does not have to worry her kindness will stop her from assassinate Duncan. Further, she wants her blood to be thicker, so she can prepare herself to be more brave and strong like a male (I.v.39-40). To put it differently, Lady Macbeth wishes she can change her gender to a male. Lady Macbeth is full of manliness inside herself. However, she can not do the same stuff as the man does. Therefore, she wants to efface her conscience, which is her “nature”, in order to prevent it to stop her during the process of her “fell purpose” of killing Duncan (I.v.41-42). All of her thoughts at that moment are reflecting that she hates her female gender. Most obviously, because she knows Macbeth does not lack ambition, but lacks support and motivation, she hopes she can wipe off all her female qualities and helps Macbeth to do the dirty jobs instead, and get the crown for him. In the play, Lady Macbeth firmly and excitedly looks at the ceiling and express her desire to be a male (Brandtner). She feverishly states: Come to my woman’s breasts And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, Wherever in your sightless substance You wait on nature’s mischief” (I.v.43-46).
Shakespeare uses an exaggerated syntax in this passage. In fact, no one can take away a woman’s breast milk. Lady Macbeth speaks to the evil spirits and prays them to help her to complete the murder. In addition, she hopes to deny her womanly nature and pleases the evil spirits to come in front of her breast and take away all her womanhood, which is her breast, breast milk, and moral, instead fill it all up with “gall,” which is brutality, merciless, and ruthlessness. Lastly, Lady Macbeth begins to fantasy the murder scene and speaks, “Come, thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, / That my keen knife sees not the wound it makes, / Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark (I.v.46-49). Shakespeare uses a personification technology in this phrase, he uses “the smoke of a hell human” to refer to the night when they kill Duncan under the darkness.
In addition, Lady Macbeth is asking the “thick night,” which means the dark night to come faster to cover up her evil side. Lady Macbeth hopes to kill Duncan as soon as possible, but at the same time, she wishes the sky can be dark enough to cover her dirty actions on the night. Besides, Lady Macbeth is asking the dark side, Demon, to hide her evil actions with a “pall,” which is like a shroud. Synchronously, she wants to have a shroud to cover everything, including the God’s eyes because she knows what she did is not right; however, she does not hope God to say “stop” or “hold” to her while she is taking action (I.v.50). To say it differently, she wishes the sky can be dark enough at that night so nobody can see her dark side, especially God, then she will not be punished seriously and she can go away from it easily. At the same time, this phrase is related to the last soliloquy when she is asking other spirits to help her. Nevertheless, at this time, she is asking the evil spirits to cover up all her evil side and actions.
Eventually, the above two soliloquies create many images to the audiences, such as darkness. In both of this soliloquies, while Lady Macbeth is speaking to herself, she often speaks with an insidious tone and in a dark place. A.C Bradley indicates, “Darkness…it is remarkable that almost all the scenes which at once recur to memory take place either at night or in some dark spot” (Lecture IX, 24). For instance, the scenes that Lady Macbeth plans to kill Duncan is in night, the time she receives the letter from Macbeth is in a dark place, and when she notices Duncan will come to her castle is also at night. All of this scenes are creating an atmosphere of sinister. Moreover, in the article “Shakespeare’s Tragedies: An Introduction,” which written by Dieter Mehl. He mentions, “…Lady Macbeth is presented to us in these images as a power that is fruitful and constructive” (114). According to these soliloquies, Lady Macbeth is a very powerful and determined person, once she makes a decision she will go on to it although she knows that is wrong.
Overall, these two soliloquies show Lady Macbeth is a woman with manliness, cruelness, and ruthlessness. Through these soliloquies and her ideal of murder Duncan, they clearly show she is strong, ambitious, and ruthless than her husband. As Mehl states, “What makes her so fascinating to the audience is chiefly her fatal impact on Macbeth, not her own character problems or any tragic conflict within her. Her language, too, is much less imaginative, not as rich in associations, but unambiguous in the simplicity and inflexibility of her will-to-power” (p114). Lady Macbeth is the greatest influence to Macbeth, she knows well on her husband; as a result, she often can find a way to persuade him and support him.
At the same time, the way and tone during Lady Macbeth expresses her thoughts toward the letter and the new are unique and grateful. Shakespeare uses the technology of imagination and metaphors in these soliloquies effectively. When audiences read through these soliloquies, they often can have a picture of that scene in their mind. Eventually, these two soliloquies clearly illustrate Lady Macbeth is a strong and powerful woman, she is willing to do anything for her husband. Most importantly, she is eager to switch the gender with her husband so she can murder Duncan by herself.
and obey her. A.C. Bradley states, “Lady Macbeth is the most commanding and perhaps the most awe-inspiring figure that Shakespeare drew” (Lecture X, 38). In other word, Lady Macbeth’s essence is ambitious, she is eager to have the power and control everything, especially on the matter of Macbeth becomes a King. Despite of Lady Macbeth’s horrible nature of crimes, her inner self is very fragile and virtuous. As a result, she eventually committed suicide due to she could not bear her guilt. Additionally, throughout the play, Lady Macbeth keep goes between her worries and thoughts toward Macbeth, she worries that Macbeth is not cruel and sinister enough to get what he desires. And eventually, through the play, she falls into a desire of become a man, so that he could do everything by herself and even could get the crown for her King. Moreover, in the play, Lady Macbeth has many soliloquies, which is a dramatic self to self conversation. It is a convention when a character is alone and speaks her thoughts out loud to herself. Throughout the soliloquies, audience can know more about the character’s inner feeling and thoughts. Besides, in the first two soliloquies from Lady Macbeth in Act One Scene five clearly illustrates how Lady Macbeth behaves and think toward the matter of Macbeth becomes King in the future due to the predictions from the witches. At the same time, through these two self to self conversation, audiences can realize how ruthless Lady Macbeth is. Moreover, the first time Lady Macbeth appears to the audiences is when she receives the letter from Macbeth. In the letter, Macbeth tells her that he becomes the Thane of Glaims because he won a war, at the same time, Macbeth tells her the prophecy from the witches. By the time Lady Macbeth finished reading the letter, she feels excited and worried, she claims, “Glaims thous art, and Cawdor; and shalt be, / What thou art promised” (I.v.11-12). Lady Macbeth restates that her husband now becomes both Thane of Glaims and Cawdor. Later she says, “shalt be, / What thou art promised,” which means that she takes the prophecy seriously and willing to do everything she can to ensure it will come true. Moreover, the word “shall be” reflects to Lady Macbeth’s belief of her husband’s position of King, which is already guaranteed by the destiny. Therefore, she is glad to do whatever she can to make sure Macbeth will be the King. Further. while Lady Macbeth is indulging in her excitement, she suddenly afraid that Macbeth is not firm enough to use violence to obtain what he desires. Meanwhile, Lady Macbeth starts to worry Macbeth’s kindness by saying: Yet do I fear thy nature; It’s too full o’th’ milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way (I.v,12-14).
Lady Macbeth knows well on her husband. At this point, she describes Macbeth’s sympathetic as “the milk of human kindness,” which clarifies Macbeth is not dare to use any sinister conspiracies to get what he wants. In fact, Lady Macbeth notices her husband is ambitious, but she worries that he is not as ruthless as she is. She is afraid that he is unwilling or do not have the heart “to catch the nearest way” to be a king, which is to murder Duncan (I.v.14-16).
Additionally, Lady Macbeth thinks her husband is lack of ruthlessness, she clearly aware that Macbeth is ambition enough to be a king; however, he is lack of ruthlessness. She sequentially, says: What thous wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou’dst have, great Glaims” (I.v.16-18).
The first two lines of this passage have an alliteration with the “h” sound, which is “highly” and “holily.” The simple meaning of these two words is whatever a person wants, he often wants many or “highly.” On the other side, when a person wants to have something without doing anything wrong, that is “holily.” To put them back to the play, Lady Macbeth says Macbeth is yearning for the crown; however, he is reluctant to murder Duncan due to his soft-heart.
Lady Macbeth knows deeply in the heart that Macbeth does not want to be a king by “play false,” which betraying and cheating on Duncan. Nonetheless, Macbeth wants to get something that does not belong to him, which is the meaning of “wrongly win.” Meanwhile, Lady Macbeth continuously saying that Macbeth is a man who wants to be a king, but willing to do anything sinister. And in the last line of the passage, she calls Macbeth “Glaims” because he is now the Thane of Glamis, a region of Scotland. Moreover, because Lady Macbeth knows her husband wants to be a king but does not have encouraged to do dirty jobs. As a result, Lady Macbeth clarifies Macbeth’s scruples, “That which cries “Thus thou must do,” if thou have it” (I.v.19).
Lady Macbeth tries to encourage and motivate Macbeth to kill Duncan. She wants to tell Macbeth, if he is really want to be the King, killing Duncan is the fast and only way to satisfy his desire of becoming a
Lord.
Although Lady Macbeth knows what Macbeth is thinking, she still believes her influences can affect him; as a result, she prays Macbeth can come home faster. She shouts out loud: …Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear And chastise with the valor of my tongue All the impedes thee from the golden round (I.v.21-34)
“Hie thee hither” means Lady Macbeth wants her husband to come home faster, so she can talk to him and persuade him to “catch the nearest way”, which is murder Duncan. Meanwhile, there is a metaphor that compares the “pouring evil spirits” to the thoughts that Lady Macbeth will be instilled into Macbeth’s mind later. Lady Macbeth wants to use her ideal to influence and convince Macbeth to kill Duncan. Thus, she is going to tell him that killing Duncan is to prevent him from having the crown. Besides, the “golden round” in the last line of this passage refers to the crown, which symbolizes the position of Lord. Lastly, in Lady Macbeth’s mind, the prophecy that told by the three witches is called “fate and metaphysical aid” (I.v.25). She deeply believes the prophecy because Macbeth is already becoming the Thane of Cawdor, which is part of the truth. Thus, she drew to believe Macbeth will be the king soon due to the witches’ prediction.
Overall of this soliloquy from Lady Macbeth, through this soliloquy, audiences can find out how Lady Macbeth is a woman with strong masculinity, courage, and bravery. However, Macbeth is a man who has a kind heart, and full of compassion, which is how her wife describes him. Furthermore, audiences can realize Lady Macbeth fits into the role of male gender in the play due to her persuasiveness, intrepidity, and manipulability. Besides, in the movie scene, Lady Macbeth speaks to herself with a very sneaky sound, and her sound is instant which shows how she ruthless is toward the matter of murder Duncan.
Furthermore, after the last soliloquy from Lady Macbeth, a message comes in and tells her the current King Duncan will come to her castle tonight. At that moment, Lady Macbeth is sure that he will die very soon. After the messager leave, she starts another soliloquy, says: The raven himself is hoarse The croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements (I.v.34-36).
It is obvious “raven” often represents death and evil. Raven flies above her castle and shout out the miserable sound, which makes Lady Macbeth deeply believe her plan of murder Duncan at night will be successes. Besides, when messager tells her that Duncan will come to her castle, the message tells the new with expressionless and sounds “hoarse” and rasping. Thus, the “raven” is also reflected to the messager, who foreshadows Duncan’s death with the dead tone.
Additionally, Lady Macbeth is very eager to murder Duncan; as a result, she wishes she can be a man who is aggressive and masculine. “Come, you spirit, / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, / And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full, / Of direst cruelty” (I.v.36-39). Lady Macbeth wants to “unsex” herself, she wants to get rid of all her female qualities, such as morality and benevolence. She hopes to “fill full of cruelty from her bottom to the top,” so she does not have to worry her kindness will stop her from assassinate Duncan. Further, she wants her blood to be thicker, so she can prepare herself to be more brave and strong like a male (I.v.39-40). To put it differently, Lady Macbeth wishes she can change her gender to a male. Lady Macbeth is full of manliness inside herself. However, she can not do the same stuff as the man does. Therefore, she wants to efface her conscience, which is her “nature”, in order to prevent it to stop her during the process of her “fell purpose” of killing Duncan (I.v.41-42). All of her thoughts at that moment are reflecting that she hates her female gender. Most obviously, because she knows Macbeth does not lack ambition, but lacks support and motivation, she hopes she can wipe off all her female qualities and helps Macbeth to do the dirty jobs instead, and get the crown for him. In the play, Lady Macbeth firmly and excitedly looks at the ceiling and express her desire to be a male (Brandtner). She feverishly states: Come to my woman’s breasts And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, Wherever in your sightless substance You wait on nature’s mischief” (I.v.43-46).
Shakespeare uses an exaggerated syntax in this passage. In fact, no one can take away a woman’s breast milk. Lady Macbeth speaks to the evil spirits and prays them to help her to complete the murder. In addition, she hopes to deny her womanly nature and pleases the evil spirits to come in front of her breast and take away all her womanhood, which is her breast, breast milk, and moral, instead fill it all up with “gall,” which is brutality, merciless, and ruthlessness. Lastly, Lady Macbeth begins to fantasy the murder scene and speaks, “Come, thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, / That my keen knife sees not the wound it makes, / Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark (I.v.46-49). Shakespeare uses a personification technology in this phrase, he uses “the smoke of a hell human” to refer to the night when they kill Duncan under the darkness.
In addition, Lady Macbeth is asking the “thick night,” which means the dark night to come faster to cover up her evil side. Lady Macbeth hopes to kill Duncan as soon as possible, but at the same time, she wishes the sky can be dark enough to cover her dirty actions on the night. Besides, Lady Macbeth is asking the dark side, Demon, to hide her evil actions with a “pall,” which is like a shroud. Synchronously, she wants to have a shroud to cover everything, including the God’s eyes because she knows what she did is not right; however, she does not hope God to say “stop” or “hold” to her while she is taking action (I.v.50). To say it differently, she wishes the sky can be dark enough at that night so nobody can see her dark side, especially God, then she will not be punished seriously and she can go away from it easily. At the same time, this phrase is related to the last soliloquy when she is asking other spirits to help her. Nevertheless, at this time, she is asking the evil spirits to cover up all her evil side and actions.
Eventually, the above two soliloquies create many images to the audiences, such as darkness. In both of this soliloquies, while Lady Macbeth is speaking to herself, she often speaks with an insidious tone and in a dark place. A.C Bradley indicates, “Darkness…it is remarkable that almost all the scenes which at once recur to memory take place either at night or in some dark spot” (Lecture IX, 24). For instance, the scenes that Lady Macbeth plans to kill Duncan is in night, the time she receives the letter from Macbeth is in a dark place, and when she notices Duncan will come to her castle is also at night. All of this scenes are creating an atmosphere of sinister. Moreover, in the article “Shakespeare’s Tragedies: An Introduction,” which written by Dieter Mehl. He mentions, “…Lady Macbeth is presented to us in these images as a power that is fruitful and constructive” (114). According to these soliloquies, Lady Macbeth is a very powerful and determined person, once she makes a decision she will go on to it although she knows that is wrong.
Overall, these two soliloquies show Lady Macbeth is a woman with manliness, cruelness, and ruthlessness. Through these soliloquies and her ideal of murder Duncan, they clearly show she is strong, ambitious, and ruthless than her husband. As Mehl states, “What makes her so fascinating to the audience is chiefly her fatal impact on Macbeth, not her own character problems or any tragic conflict within her. Her language, too, is much less imaginative, not as rich in associations, but unambiguous in the simplicity and inflexibility of her will-to-power” (p114). Lady Macbeth is the greatest influence to Macbeth, she knows well on her husband; as a result, she often can find a way to persuade him and support him.
At the same time, the way and tone during Lady Macbeth expresses her thoughts toward the letter and the new are unique and grateful. Shakespeare uses the technology of imagination and metaphors in these soliloquies effectively. When audiences read through these soliloquies, they often can have a picture of that scene in their mind. Eventually, these two soliloquies clearly illustrate Lady Macbeth is a strong and powerful woman, she is willing to do anything for her husband. Most importantly, she is eager to switch the gender with her husband so she can murder Duncan by herself.