Technique |Illustration |Effect | |Gory imagery, foreshadowing |“unsex me here, and fill me from crown to toe, top-full of direst cruelty” |Shows the violent lengths she and her husband will go to in order to fulfil their lust for power. | |Foreshadowing |“O never shall sun that morrow see!” |Showing how blinded Lady Macbeth is by her ambition and her failure to contemplate the potential consequences of her and Macbeth’s actions | |Taunts regarding his masculinity |“Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour” |Her manipulating ways exhibit her tragic flaws; the immense ambition she has to become queen and her lack of morals. | |First presented via the epithet |“Brave Macbeth” |showing the esteem in which he is held as a nobleman and soldier. | |Use of an aside |“why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my hair?” |Shows that Macbeth is already aware at a subconscious level that the nature of his ambition is already growing and his lack of morals makes this troubling. | |Imagery, unceasingly determined tone shown in high modality language |“This is a step on which I must fall down or else o’verleap” |illustrates the extent of his desire for kingship and power even if this means exceeding his moral values | |light and dark imagery, shown using metaphor |“stars, hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires” |foreshadows the dark, sinful events that will be caused by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth for them to succeed in fulfilling their ambition, which results in the death of the him and his wife. | |
Derisive language |“when you durst do it, then you were a man”. |demonstrates her lack of morals | |Imagery of blood and water shown using hyperbole |“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” |Demonstrates the guilt Macbeth is now faced with for exceeding his morals in order to commit such a crime. | | |“Out, damned spot! Out I say!” |referring to the blood on her