Lady macbeth

• Critic D.J Enright brands lady macbeth as a ‘sprinter of evil’ as her descent to madness is as rapid as her climb to tyranny – she is quickly transition from being a barbaric woman to a carcass of insanity
• ’a little water clears us of this deed’(act2)
• Litodes:


  Lady Macbeth’s omnipotent ambition blind her to the profound mental turmoil Macbeth is experiencing
• her callousness becomes apparent as she applies litodes, such as the understatement ‘a little’, not only to tribalise the act of murder but also to emasculate Macbeth, encouraging him further along his murderous path
• Euphemis:


  she employs euphemism to characterise regicide as a mere ‘deed’, highlighting a paradoxical aspect of a character. Despite her ambitions to shed feminine traits and embrace tyrannical brutality, she struggled to articulate the gravity of the henious act.
• Chracter develpment :


  her need for light in the antithesis to her earlier presentation in act 1 where she calls upon the night, wanting darkness to help field her violent and molevelent plans : ‘come thick night’