Lady Macbeth Mind Map

Key Quotes
1. POWER OF WOMEN
  1. "Fill me from the crown to the to the toe with direst cruelty"
    1. "Take my milk for gall"
      1. "Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't"
        "Screw your courage to the sticking place"
        "Are you a man?"
2. SUPERNATURAL
  1. "Come you spirits unsex me here"
3. AMBITION
  1. "Thou would'st be great; Art not without ambition but without The illness should attend it."
    1. "Was the hope drunk?"
4. MADNESS
  1. Doctor- stating that Lady Macbeth's mind is so disturbed she cannot sleep peacefully: "great perturbation of nature"
    1. "Out damned spot! Out I say!"
    2. "All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand!"
MY OPINION
1. In my opinion, Lady Macbeth is a strong contradiction to the Elizabethan view of a woman's place in social heierarchy and in marriage. She manipulates Macbeth with ease and shows no remorse for killing Duncan or dabbling in the realm of the supernatural. However, towards the end of the play she sinks back into the Elizabethan female stereotype of fragility and hysteria. Almost as if she dabbled in being masculine and dominant but her fragile female mind was unable to cope with the strain and so she fell back into weakness and eventually hysteria which leads to her death
IDEAS:
1. Lady Macbeth links masculinity to strength, explaining why she calls upon the spirits to "unsex" her. She is asking them to take away her femininity so that she might have the strength of a man to kill Duncan.
Shakespeare's intentions:
1. In my opinion, Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth as a canvas to show what women have the potential to do and become. The stereotypical 'weakness' of their gender cannot be escaped completely, however, as Lady Macbeth eventually falls into madness as her mind is unable to cope with her actions which are usually reserved for stronger male characters. Therefore, while she does break her gender stereotype for the majority of the play, she eventually proves it to be correct by showing that she has the same fragility of mind that was believed to belong to all Elizabethan women
KEY CHARACTER EVENTS:
1. 1) Act 1, Scene 5: Lady Macbeth reads a letter from Macbeth telling her about the witches and she plans to persuade him to kill Duncan
2. 2) Act 1, Scene 7: Lady Macbeth persuades her husband to kill Duncan
3. 3) Act 2, scene 2: After Macbeth returns from killing Duncan, he has forgotten to leave the daggers behind. Lady Macbeth then takes them from him and plants them on the attendants
4. 4) Act 3, Scene 4: When Macbeth sees Banquo's at the banquet Lady Macbeth is able to remain calm and convince the guests that all is well but then emasculates Macbeth for his hysteria
5. 5) Act 5, Scene 1: Lady Macbeth is caught sleep walking and trying to wash blood that isn't there from her hands. Doctor concludes that her mind is tormented.
6. 6) Act 5, Scene 5: Macbeth finds out that Lady Macbeth has been driven to suicide

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Lady Macbeth Mind Map

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	Created by Holly Leppard about 7 years ago