Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth

1. Trait #1

   • Ambitious
     • Ex1: After Lady Macbeth reads Macbeth's letter, she wanted to achieve that goal until ambition was accomplished. Her first words after reading that letter shows her strength.
       • "Glamis thou art and cawdor: and shalt be what thou promised." Act 1, Scene 5, Line
     • Ex2: Lady Macbeth is confident with her power that she uses as strenght against Macbeth
       • "Hie thee hither, That i may pour my spirits in thine ear; and chastise with the valour of my tongue. All that impedes thee from the golden round." Act 1, Scene 4, Line 24-27
     • Ex3: Her greeting of Macbeth as he arrives shows that she already made plans for what he should do.
       • "Great Glamis! Worthy Cawdor! Greater than both, by the all-hail thereafter." Act 1, Scene 5, Line 58-59
     • Ex4: Lady Macbeth knows that she has more power than Macbeth after they meet and talk the second time
       • Macbeth: "If we should fail? Lady Macbeth: "We fail! But screw your courage to the sticking-place and we'll not fail." Act 1, Scene 7, Line 65-68

2. Trait#2

   • Energetic
     • Ex1: She knows that her husband is weak, so she takes over the manly part and calls upon the spirits to fill her.
       • "From the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty." Act 1, Scene 5, Line 40
     • Ex2: She plans the murder; she drugs the grooms and lays the daggers ready as planned.
       • "Only look up clear; to alter favor ever is to fear: Leave all the rest to me." Act 1, Scene 5, Line 79-81
     • Ex3: She still has so much energy after all the murdering that has been going on to ask the spirits to make her even more powerful than she already is and make her more like a man when she says "unsex me".
       • "Come you spirits that tend on mortal Thoughts, unsex me here and fill me From the crown to the toe/ make thick My blood/ come to my woman's breasts, And take my milk for gall/ come, thick night And pall thee in dunnest smoke of hell/ see Not the wound it makes, nor heaven peep through The blanket of the dark" Act 1, Scene 5, Line 43-56

3. Trait #3

   • Affection
     • Ex1: She had had children, but none have lived. She could have been an affectionate mom after she said this to Macbeth.
       • "I have given suck, and know how tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me." Act 1, Scene 7, Line 59-60
     • Ex2: On the night of Duncan's murder she remembered her dead father from her affectionate memory which made her pause in the middle of a crime. Her whole plan for ambition is for her husband she never talks about it for herself until this one time. (Quote)
       • "Which shall to all our nights and days to come give solely sovereign sway and masterdom." Act 1, Scene 5, Line 76-77
     • Ex3: When she and Macbeth get blood on her hands she says not to worry water will get rid of all the bad things we did today
       • "A little water will clear us of this deed" Act 2, Scene 2, Line 80

4. Trait #4

   • Power/Evil
     • Ex1: She tells Macbeth that no matter what promise she says she will always do it no matter what, even if it were killing her own baby child.
       • "I have given suck, and know how tender it is to love the babe that milks me; I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums, and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this." Act 1, Scene 7, Line 59-64
     • Ex2: She is asking to the spirits to make her very powerful so that her goal of ambition is reached which makes her do many and more evil tings than she already did
       • "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." Act 1, Scene 7, Line 45-49
     • Ex3: she is truly evil. This is evident when she asks evil spirits to come unsex her, when she tries to manipulate Macbeth into committing a most sinful crime, and that she is actively part of the crime also.
       • "Come you spirits that tend on mortal Thoughts, unsex me here and fill me From the crown to the toe make thick my blood/come to my woman's breasts, and take my milk for gall/ come, thick night and pall thee in dunnest smoke of hell/ see Not the wound it makes, nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark." Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 43-56
     • Ex4: She is saying that Macbeth is too kind and nice and he should be more like her, evil.
       • "Yet i do fear of thy nature. It is too full of the milk of human kindness" Act 1, Scene 5, Line 14-15