Lady Macbeth

• How is Lady Macbeth presented

  • As a women confined by limitations of patriarchal society, Lady Macbeth is crafted as a powerful and ambitious character that challenges traditional gender expectations through her manipulation and emasculation of Macbeth fuelled by her desire and lust for control as promised in the witches prophecies
  • However as the play progresses, her initial determination and strength crumbles under the weight of guilt that drives her to be "mind diseased"
  • Shakespeare has used this transformation to highlight the consequences of engaging with the supernatural and reinforce the theme that interfering with fate ends with tragedy
• What quote's highlight LM strive for power

  • "Unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe topfull of direst cruelty!" - Act 1
  • Technique - Imagery, vivid picture of her wanting to be filled with cruelty and emphasizes her willingness to abandon humanity
  • Means - LM calls on evil spirits to remove her femininity and fill her entirely cruelty so she can murder King Duncan without hesitation or remorse
  • Suggest - This suggests LM's rejection of her feminine qualities of compassion as she views these emotions as a weaknesses that may interfere with her plan causing her to suppress them
  • Symbolise - Reflects how ambition can corrupt someone to the point they deny their own identity and humanity.
• What quote shows LM's manipulation in the middle

  • "Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t" - Act 1
  • Technique - Biblical allusion to the serpent in the Garden of Eden which represents evil and temptation, she is encouraging Macbeth to embrace the same deceptive qualities as the serpent
  • Means - LM advises Macbeth to project an image of purity whilst secretly embracing deception
  • Suggests - LM highlights her cold and calculating nature through her understanding of how to deceive others, mirroring the moral corruption
  • Symbolises - duality of human nature through the conflict of outward morality and loyalty and inward duplicity and treachery, innocent flower symbolises how Macbeth should present himself to the world whereas the serpent symbolises the dangerous ambition that will drive his actions
• What quote shows LM in the end

  • "Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand."
  • Technique - Hyperbole, emphasis the depth of LM's guilt illustrating that she is so tainted that she believes no volume of perfume can purify her
  • Means - LM in this moment of guilt and madness, imagines the smell of king Duncan's blood on her hands despite the passage of time highlighting the impact of her grief she feels
  • Suggests/Symbolise - Her attempt to cleanse herself is futile as no external actions can wash away her internal feelings of guilt and remorse as well as the sins she has committed which is mirrored by the haunting smell of blood that reminding her of the presence of sin