lady macbeth act 1

• 4th witch - “come you spirits unsex me”

  • Similarly share a sense of malevolence: supernatural powers
  • Calls upon “spirits” to unnaturally “unsex” her
  • Recurrence of “spirits” is repeated when she says she will “pour my spirits in thine ear”
  • Thus, she is familiar and not hesitant to call upon external forces to help free her from the constraints of femininity
  • Her androgynous nature would be perceived as supernatural in Jacobean era as gender roles were rigid and any break is possessed by supernatural entities
• 4th witch - “look like the innocent flower”

  • Personifies motif of appearance vs reality
  • Encourages Macbeth to “look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t”
  • Biblical allusion to serpent in Fall of Man
• 4th witch - “all hail macbeth that shalt be king here after”

  • Both employ deception as they provoke Macbeth as they provide Macbeth
  • Self-fulfilling prophecy, knowing his hubris will evolve to a tragic reality
  • “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!”
• 4th witch - “dashd the brains out“ “strangled babe”

  • Both show disregard for innocent and vulnerable life
  • Mercilessly states she would remorselessly “dash’d the brains out” of her unborn child
  • Rejection of motherhood is salient, however her violent and barbaric nature is revealed
  • Witches use in Act 4 “finger of a birth-strangled babe”
  • Carelessly use “strangled babe” / “frog” / “snake” / “dog”
  • Amoral and frel absence of guilt in destruction of innocent life
• remove femininity - topic sentence

  L.M has rich significance in literary context, she subverts audience’s expectation of women as weak and passive and she is arguable a driving force which prompts macbeths tragic downfall
• removes femininity - “pour my spirits in thine ear”

  • plans to ”pour my spirits in thine war” depicts manipulative evil qualities
  • noun “pour” builds a connection to the emasculating threat “too full o’th human kindness”
  • noun “milk” is a symbol for femininity and maternal nurturing
  • lady macbeth rejects notions on femininity
  • noun “spirit” is reminiscent of supernatural
• remove femininity - “unsex me here”

  • imperative language “unsex me here”/“come you spirits”/”come thick night“
  • suggests chanting a spell
  • nouns “spirit“ and night allude to a dark supernatural force
  • yearns to be rid of femininity to encompass inhuman which like gold that would grant her power
  • ”fall of man” is central idea of tragedy for a religious jacobean audience this is reflective of the archetype of adam and eve
  • eve was tempted by satan in the form of a serpent to eat the forbidden fruit
  • lady macbeth was tempted by kingship
  • eve ate the fruit and convinced adam to do the same
  • lady macbeth like eve set foundations for husbands evil
• emasculation of macbeth - topic sentence

  A recurring duplitous tactic from Lady Macbeth is her use of emasculation. She is calculated in her attempt to violate and undermine macbeths value as a man and worth as a soldier undermining all that quantifies him as a stoic man.
• emasculation of macbeth - “coward”

  • uses epithet insult “coward”
  • she is calculated to exploit his shame
  • threatens his entire sense of being a soldier
  • questions his masculinity and livelihood
  • blackmails him and makes an example of herself to quantify his weakness
  • claims she would’ve “dashd the brains out“ of her own child if she had sworn to, like macbeth had sworn to commit murder
  • merciless act of rejecting maternal inclinations characterises lady macbeth as violent
  • effectively competes with man of the era who could not be weak
  • femme fatal - manipulative and rejects womanhood - typical trope of femme fatal - mobilises plot in manipulation
• emasculation of macbeth - “a book where a man may read strange matters” 


  • belittles him
  • mocks candidness of his expression
  • portrays macbeth as weak and vulnerable - qualities which fail to align with ideal masculine archetype
  • indirectly questions ability to fufil his role
  • embarrassing and atypical to be instructed by a woman
  • emasculation becomes explicit - interrogates him with rhetorical question “was hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself“ - ridicule state of mind