macbeth

• There are multiple ways of interpreting the character of Lady Macbeth
• Lady Macbeth is seen as subverting feminine stereotypes of the Jacobean era but also conforming to them in a contradictory way
• There is no definitive answer to how to interpret Lady Macbeth
• In Shakespeare's time, women belonged to their fathers and then their husbands when they married
• Women could not attend school or university, purchase property, vote, or appear on stage in plays in Shakespeare's time
• Wives were expected to be obedient and subservient to their husbands, serving as hostess and helpmate
• In Act 2 Scene 3, Macduff doesn't want to inform Lady Macbeth about the murder of King Duncan, saying it would "murder as it fell" to tell a woman
• In Act 4 Scene 3, Macduff says he "could play the woman with mine eyes", meaning he could weep like a woman
• In Act 4 Scene 3, Ross says Macduff's return to Scotland would be so inspiring it would "make our women fight"
• Lady Macbeth is presented as the opposite of these feminine stereotypes, being powerful and manipulative
• In Act 1 Scene 5, Lady Macbeth calls on evil spirits to "fill her" with power, which would have been shocking to the Jacobean audience as witchcraft was a crime punishable by death
• In Act 1 Scene 7, Lady Macbeth destroys Macbeth's resolve to not kill King Duncan in less than 50 lines of dialogue
• In the banquet scene in Act 3 Scene 4, Lady Macbeth takes control when Macbeth falls apart, challenging him and directing the guests
• Some argue Shakespeare was proto-feminist, with strong female characters like Lady Macbeth
• Another interpretation is that Lady Macbeth conforms to feminine stereotypes, needing the support of dark forces and acting as a helpmate to her husband
• Lady Macbeth's power and influence diminish after Duncan's murder, as there is no room for her in the male world of treason and revenge
• Macbeth dismisses Lady Macbeth, no longer seeing her as an accomplice, and she has a breakdown and later commits suicide off-stage
• Shakespeare's portrayal of Lady Macbeth can be seen as both subverting and reaffirming feminine stereotypes of the Jacobean era
• 'out damned spot!' - Lady MacBeth
• 'look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it'
• 'I have given my soul's consent to take this night's work on mine own head'
• 'I have given my soul's consent, thoughts and words are twin births' - Lady MacBeth
• 'unsex me here' - Lady MacBeth
• "Fair is foul, and foul is fair."

  ~ witches

  - foreshadowing, setting the mood of the supernatural
• "Yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full of the milk of human kindness."


  ~ Lady Macbeth (referring to Macbeth)

  - She fears that Macbeth is too kind to go through with killing Duncan.
• "Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't."


  ~ Lady Macbeth (speaking to Macbeth)

  - This is just before King Duncan's arrival at their castle. Macbeth's wife wants him to act nice to Duncan's face, and hide his evil intentions.
• "Come, you spirits

  That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,

  And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full

  Of direst cruelty!"


  ~ Lady Macbeth

  - calling on the spirits to take away her feminine, weakness and fill her with evil because she wants Duncan dead.
• "But screw your courage to the sticking-place,

  And we'll not fail."


  ~ Lady Macbeth

  - before they kill Duncan, she is reassuring Macbeth that everything will work out if he fixes his courage firmly in place.
• "False face must hide what false heart doth know."


  ~ Macbeth

  - He has decided he will go along with Lady Macbeth's plan to kill Duncan. Telling himself that he must put on a false pleasant face to hide his false, evil heart.
• "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?"


  ~ Macbeth

  - looking at his hands after he has just killed Duncan. He wonders if all of the water in the ocean could wash the blood off his hands.
• "Is this a dagger which I see before me,

  The handle toward my hand?"


  ~ Macbeth

  - Hallucinating that he sees a dagger before he kills Duncan.
• "Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all,

  As the weird women promised, and I fear

  Thou play'dst most foully for't."

  ~ Banquo (referring to Macbeth)

  - meaning: well now you have everything that you were promised by the witches. I just fear that you did something bad to get it.
• "He's here in double trust. First, as I am his kinsman and his subject... then, as his host."


  ~ Macbeth (referring to King Duncan)

  - Listing reasons why he shouldn't kill Duncan. Duncan trusts Macbeth for two reasons: he is his kinsman/subject, and his host.
• "A little water clears us of this deed."


  ~ Lady Macbeth

  - After killing Duncan, she tells Macbeth that all they have to do is wash their hands and they will be cleared of their sin.
• Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done't


  Act 2, Scene 2 - Lady Macbeth - indicates she has some conscience - not purely evil
• Macbeth shall sleep no more


  Act 2, Scene 2 - Macbeth thinks he heard a voice cry 'sleep no more!' - accepts danger of sleep when he is to be king - insomnia - erratic and tyrannical behaviour
• Out damned spot: out I say


  Act 5, Scene 1 - Lady Macbeth - sleepwalking scene - manifestation of Duncan's blood - guilt - madness - like madwoman in the attic in Jane Eyre and Lucy's inability to sleep in Dracula
• None of woman born shall harm Macbeth


  Act 4, Scene 1 - Second apparition (Bloody child) - comforts Macbeth but has double meaning - Macduff born Caesarean - Macduff can kill him
• Mother's womb untimely ripp'd


  Act 5, Scene 8 - Macduff confirming threat
• Something wicked this way comes

  Act 4, Scene 1 - Second witch - their own creation - Macbeth now comes LOOKING FOR THEM - supernatural