"Macbeth": Lady Macbeth Analysis

"Macbeth": Lady Macbeth Analysis

1. "Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be / What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature; / It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, / Art not without ambition but without / The illness should attend it." - Lady Macbeth (1,5)

   • Witches prophcy never mentioned murder
     • LM immediately thinks about murder
       • Her ambition could be what inspires dark thoughts
         • Ambition has negative connotations
   • LM more masculine than M
     • Unnatural
       • Already more of a witch
   • "The illness should attend it"
     • Ambition comes with illness
       • Ambition is evil
   • "The nearest way."
     • She wants to be queen quickly
       • Obsessed with power
   • Greatness is accompanied with "illness"
     • Foreshadowing what will come of LM
       • Ambition is unnatural and dangerous
   • "milk of human kindness
     • Connotations of femininity
       • LM is the more powerful one in the relationship
   • Power breeds the want for more power

2. "Your face, my Thane, is as a book where men / May read strange matters. To beguile the time, / Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, / Your hand, your tongue; look like th' innocent flower, / But be the serpent under't" - Lady Macbeth (1,5)

   • Biblical reference
     • The "serpent" is what the devil transformed into to trick Adam and Eve to commit the Original Sin
       • Is LM telling M to become a devil?
         • Witches were thought to work for the devil
           • LM could be M's personal witch?
   • Evil is easy to read on someone
   • Is he "as a book" because of his close ties to the supernatural?
   • LM doing this her whole life?

3. "O, proper stuff! / This is the very painting of your fear. / This is the air-drawn dagger which you said / Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts, / Impostors to true fear, would well become / A woman's story at a winter's fire, / Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself! / Why do you makes such faces? / When all's done, / You look but on a stool." - Lady Macbeth (3,4)

   • Ridiculing M for having visions
     • Not witnessed what M has witnessed
       • When she does, she reacts the same way, if not, worse
         • Women are weak
           • LM "appears" strong but she really isn't
   • Acts as if she knows what true fear is
     • Trying to make M seem more feminine
       • Ridiculing him to manipulate him