Lady Macbeth

• 'unsex me here' 'take my milk for gall'


  Drive for power leads to the extremities of wanting to become male as society was patriarchal and there would be a massive increase in power in just this action
• 'Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it' 


  Biblical allusion as the serpent has connotations of the devil

  Serpent tempted Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge
• 'A little water clears us of this deed'


  Doesn't take into consideration the mental repercussions the action will have

  Only concerned about power and will do anything to get more
• 'Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell'


  Calls upon the spirits to bring on night time in order to cover up the murder she is planning

  Links into her potentially being the fourth witch

  Shows women to be evil with religious connotations
• 'plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed his brains out'


  Effectively says that she would kill her baby while it was feeding from her

  Goes against the typical maternal views of the time and is very gruesome
• 'when you durst do it, then you were a man'


  Tests Macbeth's fragile masculinity which prompted him to kill Duncan to prove to her that he is a man

  Manipulates Macbeth with potentially the thing that meant most to him
• 'you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts'


  Supernatural connotations with 'spirits' and referring to something that isn't quite mortal as we know it

  Calling upon these forces would make an audience at the time dislike and distrust her because of the fact that they are deeply religious (pious)
• 'Who would have thought the old man would have so much blood in him'


  Brutal and uncaring nature shines through as it seems like she is unphased by the murder she has committed on the surface

  Motif of blood representing guilt appears which could be leading towards the fact that she is shocked about how guilty she feels about the killing of Duncan and that the consequences have gone further then she has predicted