lady macbeth

• violence act one: 'dash'd the brains out'


  the merciless act of rejecting maternal inclinations characterises lady macbeth violent and determined, she effectively competes with macbeth who as a man of that era, could not be weaker than a women
• ambition act two: 'a little water clears us of this deed'


  her overpowering ambition abstructs her from seeing the genuine distress of her husband, she uses litotes to downplay the murder. laced with irony as she shifts to a state of insanity later on in the play as the guilt takes over then she starts speaking in hyperbole. fails to face up to the reality of her 'deed' so she must brush over it with less heinous words in order to keep her composure.
• ambition act one: 'come you spirits [...] unsex me here'


  understands her husband is too weak to complete the deed. imperative 'come' conveys her ambition and reveals the masculinity motif. her commitment to killing duncan is greater than macbeths, insinuating the idea that she is more of a real man than she is. 'unsex me' indicates she believes herself to have more intensity and ambition than a man.
• supernatural act one: 'pour my spirits'


  it appears she is almost casting a spell, the noun 'spirits' allude to the dark supernatural force. she yearns to be rid of her femininity to encompass the inhumane and witch like role that would grant her power. her androgynous nature would be perceived to be supernatural in the jacobean ear as the gender roles were rigid.
• supernatural act one: 'dash'd the brains out'


  they are amoral and feel and absence of guilt in the destruction of innocent life. both LM and the witches disregard the fragility of human life. SOl, shock audience.
• appearance vs reality act two 'look like th'innoence flower'


  the biblical allusion of 'serpent' seen in the fall of adam and eve, tempting them with evil is used by lady macbeth to highlight how effective deception can be when executed with an 'Innocent' facade
• guilt act five: 'out, damned spot! out i say!'


  this 'spot' is emblematic of the scar the murder has left within her mind. however it may also be interpreted as: madness often being perceived as a sign of being possessed by demons, it was believed that demons and witches had a'spot' on their bodies which identified them as evil. reinforced by 'damned' which connotes hell. the imperative verb 'out' connotes urgency and desperation, but also reveals how she is consumed by guilt and tries to assert dominance over it.
• guilt act five: 'to bed, to bed, to bed'


  her guilt has crushed her domineering and assertive personality, no matter how much she repents the violence and death cant be undone. repetition: connotes insanity, vulnerability and exhaustion. she is exhausted as she cant sleep because of her guilty mind. shakespeare shows what can happen to someone who commits regicide, never ending cycle of torment.
• gender act one: 'too full o'th' milk of human kindness'


  she believes macbeth's ambition isn't enough to kill the king, concludes macbeth lacks ruthlessness. illustrates how macbeth's ambition is almost pure compared to his wife's. the noun 'milk' is a symbol for femininity and a maternal nurturing lady, which she rejects. she believes only those who are willing to set their morals aside with achieve. wickedness must join ambition, without ambition is futile.
• guilt act two: 'he had not resembled my father [...] i had done it'


  the beginning exposes her guilty conscious coming to the service, exposing her inner cowardice and ingrained fear of patricide. lady M is manipulative as she operates with slight gender, she takes advantages of feminine weakness when it works for her yet brutally rejects it if it represses her.