The Intentions Of Lady Macbeth's Soliloquy

Lady Macbeth then says, ?Come you spirits? and asks them to ?unsex? her there and fill her ?from head to toe, top full of direst cruelty?. ?unsex me here? suggests that she wants her female characteristics to be taken away to follow through in killing king Duncan, indicating that she sees female characteristics as too soft and as a weakness especially when it comes to killing someone. These statements also refer back to the beginning of scene 5 when she is analysing Macbeth and says that he is ?too full o?th milk of human kindness? (which also indicates that she feels human kindness is a weakness).

Unlike her husband Lady Macbeth is a shrewd character. She is determined to achieve her ambition by any means possible to her. This shrewdness along her extensive manipulation skills create the strongest character in the entire play: “Was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself”. The most grievous insult one could render a man during the Middle Ages, were to his manhood; Lady Macbeth makes excellent use of this: “And live like a coward in thine own esteem letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would” like the poor cat i’th adage”. This seems to be in strong contrast with the fact that Macbeth cannot even hide his true feelings; and he proves by failing to attend the welcoming banquet for Duncan due to his unbearable guilt.

Because of Macbeth’s uncertainty of killing the King, Shakespeare uses this problem as the rise of Lady Macbeth’s role in the Scottish play. “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. Make thick my blood./ Stop up the access and passage to remorse,/ That no compunctious visitings of nature/ Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between/ The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,/ And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers,/ Wherever in your sightless substances/ You wait on nature’s mischief.” (Act 1 Scene 5) This soliloquy said by Lady Macbeth is right before the arrival of King Duncan at her castle. As stated earlier, the reader has noticed the uncertainty of Macbeth in whether he should kill King Duncan to seize the crown. In total contrast to her husband, Lady Macbeth is undoubtedly willing to do anything in order to end the King’s life and be the Queen of Scotland. Shakespeare writes these lines in the play as if Macbeth and Lady Macbeth switched gender roles due to the fact Lady Macbeth’s strength of purpose goes against Macbeth’s hesitancy. In addition to this, Shakespeare's language of this speech supports the theme of virility. When Lady Macbeth states, “unsex me here...Come to my

Lady Macbeth in William Shakespeare’s play ‘Macbeth’ is a character who suffers greatly in because of her human weakness, which is her vaulting ambition. This ambition is not for her, but for her husband. This woman, who seemed so in control at the beginning of the okay, only cared for her husband and his success, later becomes so consumed with guilt and remorse that it results in her tragic death. Through the discussion of characterisation and lkey scenes, I shall reveal that Lady Macbeth’s human flaw is  not only a major contributor to the ruthlessness of her husband but creates a huge influence in how the play unfolds.

The audience’s initial perception of Lady Macbeth is of a confident and evil women. In her first scene she is reading a letter from her husband telling her about the witches predictions. Upon reading the letter she instantly decides to

Lady Macbeth understands Macbeth’s lust for the throne, and lusts for it herself. She also understands his ambition, but feels that her husband might regret and decide against killing Duncan to steal his throne, as she regards to Macbeth as “full o’ the milk of human kindness” (1.5.4). Since Lady Macbeth fears that Macbeth would turn against her and not go through with the plan, she decides that it must be up to her to get it done correctly. She asks that only the “direst cruelty” (1.5.33) fill her, as she gathers everything that is evil to her in order to murder Duncan. Even though Macbeth was hesitant over the idea of murdering Duncan, his wife convinces him that acting on his impulse of killing Duncan is the right thing to do. This shown when Macbeth starts to second guess the thought of murdering his king, and that it should not be done. However, his wife verbally harasses him into agreeing. Lady Macbeth questions his love for her, questions his masculinity, and criticizes his desire to be king by saying, “When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more the man” (1.5.49-51). As his successfully offends him, he decides that he needs to prove his manhood, his love of his wife, and his ambition to be king, he agrees to murder Duncan.

Lady Macbeth is a complex and intriguing character in Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth. She is a difficult character to embody as her personality seems split between two sides, one that is pure evil, sly and conniving in contrast to her softer, vulnerable, weak and feminine side. In the play we see her in these two main ways. The reader may feel a certain animosity towards Lady Macbeth throughout the first few acts as her personality appears more and more distasteful, in spite of this towards the end she has a serious breakdown over the guilt that torments her, even in her sleep, regarding her hand in Duncan’s untimely death.

She tells the sprits ‘Come to my woman breasts/And take my milk for gall’ so that she can get rid of all the kindness within her-blood and milk form her breasts- Shakespeare uses ‘direst cruelty’ to express the desperation running through Lady Macbeth and with this Shakespeare creates a very hell-like picture for the audience. However, eventually Lady Macbeth persuasion overcomes Macbeth and finally he agrees to kill Duncan. ‘Let light not see my black and deep desires’, this shows Macbeths ambitions are not of good intention and turns to the universe to express this ambition (about how great it is) It also shows that even though he wants to kill Duncan, the audience is still finding Macbeth arguing whether or not to do it. Shakespeare also uses alliteration to emphasize the amount evil involved in this deed. In relation, Shakespeare shows Macbeth willing to jump the hierarchy of position. ‘We’d jump the life to come’ show the willingness to jump the hierarchy, which instantly shows the relation to the archangel which went against God and the hierarchy of Heaven to create his own land of chaos which is better known as hell. Moreover, Lady Macbeth is shown with even more evil to represent her will for Macbeth to complete the deed, ‘I have given suck and know how tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me: I would while it was smiling in my face, Have plucked my nipple from

In the beginning of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth takes on an extremely masculine persona when confronting Macbeth about killing Duncan and desires that, “Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, / And fill me from the crown to the toe topful / Of direst cruelty,” (1.5.38-43). Lady Macbeth is so power hungry that she requests spirits to make her a man so she could have enough will to kill Duncan. While Lady Macbeth portrays a stable, confident woman on the outside, internally she battles against her own feelings of regret and remorse. During her nightmare, Lady Macbeth rambles about her guilt.

Immediately, after reading Macbeth’s letter, Lady Macbeth’s malevolence urges her to plot the murder for the king. She decides to encourage Macbeth and calls for evil spirits to aid her brutal plans, “Come, you spirits… you murd’ring ministers… You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night”. Her talk about defeminising herself and making her the superior amongst the couple, “That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here”, suggests Macbeth is weak and powerless in her presence. She implicates her husband of not being physically impotent but soft hearted and sentimental. She confronts him of this and warns him of his manliness and cowardice. She uses these various, manipulative strategies (challenging his manhood, being more aggressive, and defeminising

In act I of Shakespeare’s Macbeth Lady Macbeth’s character is greatly enhanced by long monologues, layering her ambitious character- revealing that Lady Macbeth is not a conventional woman from the literary period. Contemplating on her course of action and weighing the validity between ambition and morality, Lady Macbeth is a multifaceted character that Shakespeare crafts through diverse rhetorical techniques in act I to demonstrate that women have inert desires that lead them to be as driven as men. In the opening of act I Shakespeare lays out the tone of the scene with a use of excess punctuation, showing that Macbeth is in deep thought as he reasons that being involved with the supernatural “Cannot be ill; cannot be good”

Lady Macbeth is a crucial part of the story; she adds plot and assists Macbeth through his plans. The soliloquy also buys time for Macbeth to come home and for King Duncan to arrive to the palace. The soliloquy reveals Lady Macbeth’s personality and scheme for her husband to be crowned king.

With the visit to King Duncan, the King announces that his son Malcolm will be heir to the throne. In Macbeth’s mind, all he can think about is murdering the King and all that will come along with it. Macbeth sends a letter to his wife telling of all that has happened and to prepare for the King’s visit. In order to keep the murder in her mind she doesn’t want anything to get in her way, so she even goes to the point of seeking evil and not wanting to be a women-afraid of the feminine ways which will interfere in the murder. When Lady Macbeth says, “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! Make thick my blood; (I v ll. 44-47) it shows how far Lady Macbeth is willing to go to make sure her husband and herself gets to the top. She even goes to the point to call upon the spirits to unsex her and fill her with cruelty to make sure that here feminine ways don’t cause the plan to go wrong.

Lady Macbeth, in contrast is never depicted as a soft tender female figure, instead Shakespeare makes her ambitious character apparent from the start, after reading the letter from her husband, telling her about the Witches’ predictions, the seed of ambition grows within her and immediately a plan forms in her head, her first speech is one full of strong metaphors, “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.” This initial speech is so powerful and strong, as she summons spirits to give her the strength of a man, so that she has the vigour to plot Duncan’s murder, and convince Macbeth to form an alliance with her, ensuring he will become king, just as the Witches predicted. Although the Witches

Soon after, a letter is sent by Macbeth to Lady Macbeth it begins to show Macbeth the reader learns Macbeth may not be as heroic as he is on the battlefield. The letter that Macbeth writes to Lady Macbeth explained what the witches prophesied to Macbeth. Lady Macbeth comments by saying “ Yet I do I fear thy nature: it is to full of th' milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way”(1.5.16-18). Lady Macbeth views Macbeth as a coward and therefore would not kill the king for the throne. In fact, Lady Macbeth is the person who pushes Macbeth to commit the murder of King Duncan in order for her to for her to become queen. Lady Macbeth is the one who plans King Duncan's murder. “When Lady Macbeth enters, though, she uses her cunning rhetoric and persuasive techniques to convince Macbeth of the murders.” (Macbeth-Attitude Changes). Lady Macbeth is strong and likes to get her way. Macbeth continues to demonstrate his lack of heroism because he is Lady Macbeth's follower and does whatever she makes him do. Lady Macbeth treats Macbeth as though he was a ring on her finger. Lady Macbeth at first is shown as ruthless and has complete control over Macbeth and makes him do what ever she wants “Had he not resembled my father as he slept I don it”(2.2.13). This states though she is ruthless she has a