Macbeth - Lady Macbeth Quotes and Analysis PDF

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Summary

Key topics and concepts which encompass the descriptive techniques and devices used to describe Lady Macbeth in Act 1 Scene 5 of Macbeth...

Description

GCSE English Literature – Macbeth – Lady Macbeth Key Quotes (Act 1 Only) Quote AMBITIOUS (and fears Macbeth’s lack of)

“Yet do I fear thy nature; / It is to full o’th’ milk of human kindness, / To catch the nearest way”

Feels bound by Societal Normal Constraints

“Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, / And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full”

Act 1 Scene 5

Technique / Device

MIGHT NOT USE BOTH (ABOVE)

Act 1 Scene 5

Seeks not to “Come to my woman’s breasts, be women / / and take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers,” repels Act 1 Scene 5 expectations “Come, thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of Hell, / That my keen knife see not the wound it makes ”

Act 1 Scene 5

Themes / Context

Women seen as inferior in the patriarchal system of the times DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS gone against IMAGERY / SYMBOLISM of Societal by her planning to kill (evil ect.) Beliefs about women (imagery of THEME of ‘Ambition and Power ’ purity and innocence surrounds) explored – she is very much so She wants to break away from the SYMBOLISM OF MASCULINITY – she is Lose feminine façade, supports determination. mould of women (views and ideas). trying to break away from her She too calls on evil spirits, like the Witches, and Believes in ideas of SUPERNATURAL, gender, to become man (what with?) could suggest fewer dissimilitude’s between e.g. Witches, not uncommon of the SEMANTIC FIELD OF IMPERATIVES – them (her being perceived as Witch-like, evil???) time (who possessed ‘evil’ power) commanding and controlling (unlike) Crown (noun) forebodes to their task/aim/goal She feels masculine, is female??? METAPHOR – to compare milk (feminine) to human kindness

Act 1 Scene 5 Seeks violent “*Fill me, from the crown to the EVIL IMAGERY – “direst”, “cruelty”, toe top-full* / Of direst cruelty. “blood” suggest evil of her. but feels like Make thick my blood” ALLITERATION of T – Emphasises and

she cannot as she is

Analysis / Zoom

highlights how she wants to be so encompassed by this new ‘cruelty’ SEMANTIC FIELD / IMAGERY of Women – that she wants to lose to achieve ‘murdering ability’ ALLITERATION of ‘M’ Sound – Creates snarling sound appropriate to the meaning (striking emotional ideas) PERSONIFICATION – Knife cannot see what it is doing, emphasises evil of actions and her supernatural beliefs

She is unsure how Macbeths purity and innocence will interfere with their murder plan. ‘Nearest way’ suggests ambition and determined to gain the title quickly, and she is impatient? Emphasises her ambition, and that she is so driven that she ‘fears’ (Verb) their failure.

Calls on spirits to take away her blood (feelings of pity)

SUPERNATURAL (Believes that spirits can take away the good)

Crown (noun) forebodes to their task/aim/goal Implies inability to commit murder as a female SUPERNATURAL – Not uncommon to Supernatural that can remove her body parts? share similar beliefs, fits the norms Gall (noun, POISON) sense of evil, reference to and still believes in their ‘powers’. “M..Ms” refers ‘angels of death ’ (she to become) Wants to break away from the “Woman’s” (noun) suggests its not hers, that he Elizabethan/Jacobean societal identifies adversely to them, should not be hers? expectation of nurturing a child

Deceitful and “Look the th’innocent flower, / Promotes But be the serpent under’t” this to Macbeth (by Act 1 Scene 5 ambition) “was the hope drunk / wherein Has repugnance you dressed yourself? Halth it slept since? ” to Macbeth’s cowardice Act 1 Scene 7

SYMBOLISM / IMAGERY – Creates visual imagery of flower (and the positive connotations), and serpent (with the evil/negative connotations) JUXTAPOSITION – Contrasting ideas of juxtaposed people (dual nature) METAPHOR – compare his feelings METAPHOR – Compares to Macbeth (that he once had it – but now gone) RHETORICAL QUESTIONS – keeps interrogating Macbeth, pressuring him to follow her plan (intimidating – uncommon for women) PERSONIFIED – Ambition/hope sleep?

“That made you break this enterprise to me? / When you durst do it, then you were a man” Act 1 Scene 7

Remorseless brutality and loyal (fuelled by ambition)

“I have given suck, and know / How JUXTOPOSITION – “Tender”, “love”, tender tis’ to love the babe that milks “babe”, “smiling” contrast with me. / I would, while it was smiling in violence of “plucked”, “dashed”, my face, / Have plucked my nipple “boneless” – dark for reader. from his boneless gums, / And IMAGERY – Graphic statement of dashed the brains out” violence about herself and the extent of her ambition/devotion Act 1 Scene 7

“We shall make our griefs and clamour roar / Upon his death?” Act 1 Scene 7

Suggests juxtaposed ideas of who they are, and CONTEXT OF SIMILES – Medal to that Macbeth need to be that (but also hide it) commemorate Gunpowder Plot had Suggest for Macbeth to be deceitful (command) same depictions (serpent and Highlights dual nature that Macbeth has/hides flower), well known to the audience, foreshadows deception of the plot Serpent (noun) created emphasis of evil (etc.), GENDER ROLES – She is expected to Temptation and treachery (Equivocation), be not commanding, but is serpents have link to biblical story of Adam/Eve Asking if he was drunk with the ambition he had THEME of AMBITION - Macbeth when he formerly promised her. formally had it, she does now too, Thinks he was lying/faking, (ie. he got dressed?) and is annoyed he has lost it Offended and hurt that he lied/changed his mind. CODE OF CHIVALRY – Expected to be He can dress off/on this ambition (ALT deceitful) ‘protect weak, live by honour/glory Slept (verb) emphasises his lack of ambition into and never refuse challenge’ – their plan, and that there one was such strong Macbeth refuses and she offended Enterprise connotes the idea that this is all a ‘business transactions’, and that it desensitise and inhumane lacking the way she thinks Suggests that only when he had ambition to kill the King, he only was ‘a man’ then, not anymore Disrupts typical idea of what a Willing to kill her own child to fulfil a promise mother would thought to be like (extremely brutal and demonstrates contradiction between her and husband morality, APEPARANCE VS REALITY – Present as normal women, however reality established lack of contiguity between them) is violent and sadistic concepts) Defame and make Macbeth seem unmanly Tender (adjective) emphasises innocence, and MEN AND WOMEN – Men expected to retuned use of ‘milk’ to represent feminine ideas be violent, not women, so difference

She deserts the Elizabethan/Jacobean societal expectation of nurturing a child...