lady macbeth

• Stop up the access and passage to remorse


  She wants to be entirely violent with no remnants of femininity as she is aware that this constraints her . She sees emotion as synonomous with weakness and . By eradicating it she unlock the barbaric tyrant she dreams of being
• Dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this

  The merciless act of rejecting maternal inclinations characterises lady Macbeth as violent and determined , she effectively competes who as a man of that era could not be weaker than a woman
• You lack the season of all natures, sleep.


  This is the antithesis to her previous violent depiction , it seems like she is now moderate and quell his evil. She is comparatively passive and is preoccupied with the noun sleep . It appears she is yearning to reverse the murderous chaos as she realises her role as queen isn't what she expected
• A little water clears us of this deed."


  Her overpowering ambition obstructs her from seeing the genuine distress of her husband. She uses litotes to down play the murder . It is laced with irony as she shifts to a melodramatic state of insanity and begins speaking in hyperbole as the guilt takes over . The euphemism hints at this by referring to the murder as a deed . Lady Macbeth fails to face up to the reality of it and must placate it into less heinous words in order to keep her composure
• Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here


  Is seems like she is almost casting a spell the noun spirits alludes to a dark supernatural force . She yearns to be did of her femininity to encompass the inhumane and witch like role that would grant her power . Her androgynous nature would be perceived as supernatural in the Jacobean era as gender roles were rigid
• dashed the brains out and the witches use fingers of a birth strangled babe

  They are amoral and feel an absence of guilt in the destruction of innocent life . Both lady Macbeth and the witches disregard of fragile human life can be seen in their interactions with Macbeth
• Look like th' innocent flower, but be the serpent under 't.


  The biblical allusion to the serpent seen in the fall of mankind in genesis where the serpent tempts Adam and Eve is used by lady Macbeth to highlight how effective deception can be when executed with an innocent facade
• Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done't


  The beginning exposes her guilty conscience coming to the surface, exposing her inner cowardice and ingrained fear of patricide . Lady Macbeth is manipulative as she operates within a liminal gender , she takes advantage of alleged feminine weakness when it works in her favour yet brutally rejects it if it represses her
• She is a sprinter of evil ( not quote)

  She is classified as a sprinter of evil as her descent into madness is as rapid as her climb to tyranny - she quickly transitioned from a barbaric woman to a carcas of insanity . Macbeth comparatively is more like a long distance runner as his decent is slower
• Out damned spot: out I say

  This spot is emblematic of the scar that the murder has created on her mind however this may be interpreted in another sense by sheakepeares contemporaries. Madness was often perceived as a sign of being possessed by demons , it was believed that witches had a spot on their bodies which identified them as evil and this is emphasised by damned which has connotations of hell. This quote also carries the motif of blood
• Lady Macbeth enters with a taper


  As a [taper] provides light, this is emblematic of how Lady Macbeth is seeking light, hope and solace in her eternal mental darkness. Jesus was seen to be the 'light' of the world, providing salvation for mankind, therefore Lady Macbeth's dependency on the light could illuminate how she is hopeful for salvation and retribution for her sins.
• "Too full of th' milk of human kindness"

  This is suggesting that she will replace this milk with evil . The noun milk is also a symbol for femininity and maternal nurturing , lady Macbeth rejects notions of femininity
• 'pour my spirits in thine air

  She is a femme fatale as she is not only manipulative but rejects her womanhood and motherhood - a typical trope of a femme fatale . Her manipulation is salient in the quote as she wants to taint Macbeths mind with her spirits
• Was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself?


  Used to ridicule him and uses rhetorical questions as a calculated tool of her manipulation she gives him time to ponder and think about his actions , it is clear that she wants to exploit his emotion of embarrassment or shame
• I shame to wear a heart so white


  She ridicules his cowardice. As "white" connotes purity, she is mocking his pure and moral heart.