Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth

1. Begining of the Play

   • Driving force of Macbeth's evil
   • Dominating
     • Unnatural
       • For Shakespeare's audience at the time
   • Holds the upper hand over Macbeth
     • Pressure him
     • Forcefull
     • Shames Macbeth
   • Ruthless

2. Ambitious

   • Selfish
     • Power and Status
   • Craves power
   • 'Thou wouldst be great thou art not without ambition' - LM
     • Drives your actions
     • Only ambition can make you great
     • Things done her way
   • Lust

3. Guilt

   • Regret
     • Madness
       • Macbeth continues to sieze power and control
         • Lady Macbeth - decends further into madness
       • 'Out damned spot out I say' - LM
         • Irony
           • Before she ordered and all obeyed - Now she orders the spot out and it stays
             • Reflects the murders that cannot be reverdsed
           • 'A little water clears us of the deed' - LM
             • Now she is trying to wash her hands
               • Of the deeds and thee guilt
               • Its not working
   • Concious
   • Contrast from start to end of play

4. Power

   • 'Give me the daggers' - LM
     • She orders Macbeth
     • Macbeth comits murder
       • Lady Macbeth still in control
       • Makes the plan
     • An order
     • Expresses Macbeth's incapability
       • She has to take care of matters
         • Her husband is too weak

5. Masculinity

   • 'Unsex me here' - LM
     • 'Make thick my blood' - LM
       • willing the spirits to change her
         • emotionally - typically masculine
           • opposed to unstable and naieve
           • Does not want to feel
             • Guilt and remorse
           • Prepare her for her actions
             • Harness her emotion and desire
               • As masculinity
               • To overpower
           • More of a warrior
   • 'Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness' - LM
     • not masculine enough
     • Fears Macbeth wont be able to carry out the deeds neccessary to gain the power foretold
   • 'My keen knife see not the wound it makes' - LM
     • Don't let herself look back at deeds
     • 'keen knife' shows she wants to comit the murder
       • Not suffer from the emotion after
     • It is alsso said like an order
       • Showing her control and power