Macbeth

Conflict

Lady Macbeth

Through the internal conflict about whether or not Macbeth should kill Duncan.

Banquo's internal conflict about whether Macbeth won the throne fairly.

Lady Macbeth and Macbeth's conflict about murder

Act I, Scene VII

Act I, Scene III

"If chance may have me King, why, chance may have me, without my stir."

Act I, Scene IV

"My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical"

"Stars, hide your fires"

stars told fate

emphasizes his decision to control his own fate

theme of control, power

disparity between Duncan and Macbeth

reveals his intimate disappointment

audience sees his hamartia (desire to be king)

his first through of regicide

dual nature (both true and false)

emphasizes his confusion

ambiguous intent

audience would've blamed the witches

allowing it to come "naturally"

allows the audience to believe in Macbeth's loyalty to the crown

use of the aside

"...who should against his murderer shut the door, not bear the knife myself."

afraid of retribution

complex response from Macbeth & the audience

soliloquy

fast pace

euphemistic

creates a sense of unease

"ingredients of our poison'd chalice"

feminine stereotype of cooking

steps to the murder

Macbeth's emotional state

audience is supposed to believe he's an emotional and ambiguous character who cant understand his emotions

"Screw your courage to the sticking place and we'll not fail."

frightening

unfamiliar to come from a woman

Lady Macbeth holds the power currently

"I fear thou play'dst most foully for't"

"But hush! No more."

"Oh treachery! Thou mayst revenge."

challenges gender stereotypes in the Jacobean era

consumed by paranoia and her guilt

cunning and manipulative

"unsex me here"

"fill me with direst cruelty"

rid of her femininity

suggests she cannot be truly evil YET as she still possesses some feminine qualities

views her femininity as an obstacle

determined

highlights her ambition to become queen

superlative "direst"

desire to be completely evil

willing to do this for her own ambition of becoming queen

"make thick my blood"

"come, you spirits"

wants to be braver

believes that her femininity prevented her from killing Duncan

theme of the supernatural

"come" shows her willingness and desire for her femininity to be eradicated from her body

"when you durst do it, then you were a man"

derogatory

shows her cold-hearted nature

questioning his masculinity makes Macbeth want to prove it - Shakespeare draws on the audience's religious belief of original fear to compel the audience to view Lady Macbeth as the true evil that turns Macbeth

"what's done, is done"

repetition highlights how it is too late

trying to comfort Macbeth for personal gain

takes control and seems to be the dominant one in the relationship

"are you a man?"

questioning, mocking tone adopted

questions Macbeth's masculinity multiple times

highlights her desires to be a man to have the power that a woman would never be able to have

emphasizes her innate desire for power

audience sees Macbeth as weak

"Out, damned spot; out I say."

"What's done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed."

imperative "out"

wants to be freed of her guilt

she is stained

constant tormenting by her sin

she has lost the control she had previously in the play as she has been overcome by her fear, only fueled by Macbeth's reckless actions

repetition

sense of realisation

allows her to feel a sense of control in her words whilst despairing over her guilty conscience

"all the sweet perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand"

ironic as previously she told Macbeth that "a little water clears us of this deed"

feminine use of perfumes suggest she has lost that masculine power she called for

"little" suggests vulnerable - she sees herself in a feminine light at this point in the play

Masculinity

through Lady Macbeth's transgressive nature

seen as diminished through Macbeth as he begins to fall to his harmartia

Act I, Scene VII

"when you durst do it, then you were a man"

through the witches in an attempt to draw on the audience's fear

Act I, Scene III

"You should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so"

Act I, Scene V

"Yet I do fear thy nature; it is too full o' the milk of human kindness"

Lady Macbeth fears her husband is too compassionate to kill Duncan

"milk" conjures a feminine image that is maternal and nurturing

Macbeth is not totally evil at this point

"And live a coward in thine own esteem"

wants Macbeth to "prove his manhood" by murdering Duncan