lady macbeth

• 'out damned spot! out, I say!' + 'here's the smell of blood still.' + 'wash your hands.' A5S1 during somnombulance 


  • regicide
  • END OF PLAY
  • kingship
  • guilt
  • mental instability/conflict
• 'all the perfumes of arabia will not sweeten this little hand.' A5S1


  • femininity
  • END OF PLAY
  • guilt
  • supernatural
  • ambition
  • appearance vs. reality
  • free will
  • regicide
• 'stop up the access and passage to remorse' + 'take my milk for gall you murdering ministers' 


  • beginning of play
  • ambition
  • femininity
  • supernatural
  • kingship
• 'unsex me here!' + 'fill me from the CROWN to the toe topfull of direst cruelty.'


  • femininity
  • kingship
  • regicide
  • ambition
  • supernatural
  • appearance vs. reality
• 'come you spirits, that tend on mortal thoughts.' A1S5


  • supernatural
  • ambition
  • femininity
  • 'come' imperative
• A1S7 'when you durst do it, then you were a man' + 'too full of the milk of human kindness' + 'screw your courage to the sticking place, and we'll not fail.'


  • 'durst do' alliteration
  • femininity
  • supernatural
  • ambition
• 'my hands are of your colour but i shame to wear a heart so white.' A2S2 after duncan


  • guilt
  • supernatural
  • ambition
  • appearance vs. reality + authorial intent
• 'your face, my thane, is a book where men may read strange matters' A1S5


  • 'my thane' not 'my king' emasculates him
  • femininity
  • ambition
• 'stop up the access and passage to remorse' A1S5


  'The access and passage to remorse again make her body akin to a building, here the castle—it evokes barred gates, locked doors, locked rooms, and no way out as much as in. She is fortifying herself against the compunctious visitings of nature'

  • ambition
  • femininity
  • supernatural
• A5S1 'Look not so pale.' Links to the quote macbeth says 'cancel and tear that great bond which makes me pale' about BANQUO. Later in Lady Macbeth's somnombulance she says 'Banquo's buried, he cannot come out.' 


  • cements the notion that Lady Macbeth is reliving her past; this is probably because she is so ridden with guilt. Perhaps she wishes she can undo her actions. The caring tone also evokes femininity. She may miss the femininity she had and wants to relive it.
  • supernatural
  • ambition
  • free will
  • femininity