Act 1 Scene V - Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy
She has just received a letter from Macbeth explaining the witches’ prophesies. She has heard that
the King (Duncan) is to visit their castle. She has decided to kill, or get Macbeth to kill Duncan. Here
her soliloquy (speech on her own) shows her desire to be “more male” and “less female” so she can
kill Duncan.
Exit Messenger
The raven himself is hoarse
The raven has a sore throat
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
CD H 8/1/14 21:30
Comment [1]: Imagery – black bird
associated with death, shows her dark
desires
Because it has called out that Duncan is coming
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
To stay in my castle. Come dark spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And make me less female/take away my femininity,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
And from head to toe fill me
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;
With awful cruel intentions! Make my blood thick;
CD H 8/1/14 21:30
Comment [2]: “you spirits” she calls on
devilish witchcraft to give her strength
CD H 8/1/14 21:30
Comment [3]: The caesura makes the
actor pause, adding tension and
drama as she delivers the line about
becoming more male
CD H 8/1/14 21:30
Comment [4]: Caesura after cruelty
causes actor to pause making the
audience take in the shocking nature
of Lady Macbeth’s thoughts
CD H 8/1/14 21:30
Comment [5]: Monosyllabic
command sounds like a witches spell
or incantation
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
Stop any feelings of guilt
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Don’t let any natural instincts
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
Stop me from doing it
The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
… Come to my breasts
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
CD H 8/1/14 21:30
Comment [6]: Juxtaposition of “milk”
and “gall” emphasises the shocking
way she wishes to reject her natural
nurturing instincts to instead murder
the king
CD H 8/1/14 21:30
and change my breastmilk for hatred, you murdering spirits,
Comment [7]: This also links/develops
in Act 1 scene 7 – when she says she
would “dash” the “brains”
Wherever hidden in the air
CD H 8/1/14 21:31
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,
You wait for my call! Bring the night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, ]
And hide us in the dark smoke of hell
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
That my sharp blade will not have to see the wound it will make
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
And stop heaven seeing through the dark to try
To cry 'Hold, hold!'
To tell me to “Stop, Stop!”
Comment [8]: Alliteration – ms sounds
like moaning- emphasise her thrill and
excitement at calling on the dark
spirits
CD H 8/1/14 21:31
Comment [9]: The sibilance makes the
actor salivate, suggesting she is almost
sexually excited by the murder she is
planning
CD H 8/1/14 21:31
Comment [10]: Dark imagery
because she knows her desires are
unnatural
CD H 8/1/14 21:31
Comment [11]: The iambic
pentameter is cut short to leave the
audience hangiung and emphasise
the shocking nature of Lady
Macbeth’s speech.
Hautboys and torches. Enter a Sewer, and divers Servants with dishes and service,
and pass over the stage. Then enter MACBETH
MACBETH
If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
If it actually was done, then its best
It were done quickly: if the assassination
It’s quick: if the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
Could stop any consequences, and
With his surcease success; that but this blow
Quick and successful; if only this one stabbing
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
CD H 9/1/14 21:30
Comment [12]: Repetition of done
emphasises how Macbeth wants it
finished and over
CD H 9/1/14 21:36
Comment [13]: The pentameter
reverses with twop stresses on “done”
and “quick”. This highlights how
awkward he feels about the deed. An
Elizabethan audience would be used
to the strict pentameter on stage and
would feel the awkwardness of the
line, revealing Macbeth’s disturbed
state of mind.
CD H 9/1/14 21:40
Comment [14]: The caesura after
quickly causes the actor to pause and
the audience to realise how troubled
Macbeth is.
CD H 9/1/14 21:40
Could be all that it is involved
Comment [15]: The alliterativr hard
“C” “Could..ConseQuence..Catch his
horror at considering the plan.
Right here, right now
CD H 9/1/14 21:42
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'ld jump the life to come. But in these cases
Then I would be in heaven. But in a case like this
We still have judgment here; that we but teach
We will still be judged; if you do
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
Evil bloody things, they come back
To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice
To plague you: this fair justice
Comment [16]: Sibilance creates an
hissing sound either highlighting the
evil temptation (devil took form of a
snake to tempt Eve), or it could make
the actor have to spit the words out
emphasising Macbeth’s disgust
CD H 9/1/14 21:47
Comment [17]: The metaphor plague
the inventor shows how Macbeth
knows such evil violent deeds will bring
worse consequences. It is also
proleptic irony as Lady Macbeth is
later “plagued” by madness through
her “bloody” visions.
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
Means we are deciding to drink our
To our own lips. He's here in double trust;
Own poison. He’s here trusting me twice;
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
First, I am related to him and his subject,
CD H 9/1/14 21:47
Comment [18]: The metaphor
“poison’d chalice” emphasises the
violence and intrigue involved.
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Both strong reasons not to do it; and I am his host
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Who should protect him from a murderer
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Not kill him myself. Anyway, Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
Has been a modest King, has been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
So fair as a great King, that all his good deeds
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
Will beg like angels, with trumpets as tongues, against
The deep damnation of his taking-off;
The awful deed of murdering him
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
And everyone’s pity will overpower
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed
Everything, or angels, riding
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
CD H 9/1/14 21:47
Comment [19]: Repetition of
“against” highlights his desire to stop
the planned mursder.
CD H 9/1/14 21:47
Comment [20]: Numerous caesurae
cause pauses, suggesting a troubled
mind that cant make a decision
CD H 9/1/14 21:48
Comment [21]: Religious imagery
shows Macbeth knows the planned
murder is wrong and goes against
Christian morality
CD H 9/1/14 21:49
Comment [22]: Numerous alliterative
phrases builds the soliloquy to a
climax.
CD H 9/1/14 21:51
Comment [23]: “naked new born
babe” the metaphor personifies “Pity”
in a simile relating to a child. This is
particularly poignant when Lady
Macbeth later says she would “dash
the brains….”
The invisible spirits of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
Shall show the horror of what I have done to everyone
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
That the world will be flooded with tears. I have nothing
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
To puncture my desire to be king, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
My ambition, which is so strong
CD H 9/1/14 21:52
Comment [24]: “spur … the sides of
my intent” the metaphor uses horseriding imagery and suggests that
Macbeth feels he is
And falls on the other.
It will ruin my chances of success.
Enter LADY MACBETH
How now! what news?
Oh hi! What’s happening?
LADY MACBETH
He has almost supp'd: why have you left the chamber?
He’s almost finished dinner: why did you leave the room?
MACBETH
Hath he ask'd for me?
Has he asked about me?
LADY MACBETH
Know you not he has?
Don’t you know he has?
CD H 9/1/14 21:54
Comment [25]: Numerous questions
and the adjacency pairs juxtaposed
by the previous soliloquy change the
atmosphere on stage drastically
emphasising the nervousness of the
plotting couple
MACBETH
We will proceed no further in this business:
We will not continue with our plan.
He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought
CD H 9/1/14 21:55
Comment [26]: Macbeth tries to assert
his dominance with forceful decisive
statement
He has given me promotions recently; and I am
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Well-regarded by many
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
And should enjoy the reputation that I have recently earned
Not cast aside so soon.
Not throw it away so quickly.
LADY MACBETH
Was the hope drunk
Were you drunk
Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since?
When you suggested it? Have you slept it off?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
Or are you waking now feeling all ill
At what it did so freely? From this time
About the great plan? From now
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
I will judge if you really love me. Are you scared
To be the same in thine own act and valour
CD H 9/1/14 21:59
Comment [27]: The whole of Lady
Macbeth’s angry response to
Macbeth is in the form of questions. As
this is between two actors, and she
does not allow him to answer any of
the accusatory questions,
Shakespeare shows her dominance
and his submissive position in their
relationship to the audience.
CD H 9/1/14 21:59
Comment [28]: Imagery suggests he is
weak and sick
CD H 9/1/14 22:01
Comment [29]: “afeard” and “valour”
Shakespeare shows Lady Macbeth’s
manipulative nature by showing her
question her warrior husband’s
bravery.
To actually bravely do what
As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
What you really want to? Can
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
You really live with yourself
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
As a coward and knowing it
Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,'
Always saying “I dare not” or “I would”?
Like the poor cat i' the adage?
MACBETH
Prithee, peace:
I beg you, stop
I dare do all that may become a man;
I do all that proves me to be a man
Who dares do more is none.
No one could do more.
LADY MACBETH
What beast was't, then,
What animal was it
That made you break this enterprise to me?
That forced you to suggest this plan to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
When you dared to do it you were a real man
CD H 9/1/14 22:02
Comment [30]: Placin the words inside
speech marks encourage an actor playing Lady
Macbeth to mock or imitate a pathetic voice
when saying the lines
CD H 9/1/14 22:02
Comment [31]: The alliteration shows how
much her accusations are upsetting him
And, to be more than what you were, you would
And to aim to be the King, makes you even
Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place
More of a man. The situation
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
Was the same then, but you were fine about it
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
Now the situation has arrived
Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
CD H 9/1/14 22:05
Comment [32]: Seeing she has
touched a nerve, she continues to
question his manliness repeating the
word man
CD H 9/1/14 22:11
Comment [33]: The repetition of
“man” reveals the theme of gender
which is present throughout the play –
CONNECT to social context
And you give in. I have nursed a baby, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:
How tender it feels to love a baby suckling you
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
I would, even while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
Have pulled my nipple from his toothless gums
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you
And smashed the brains out, if I had promised you
Have done to this.
To do it.
CD H 9/1/14 22:11
Comment [34]: Again the gender role
is presented as a female should
nurture and show love.
CD H 9/1/14 22:11
Comment [35]: The juxtaposition of
the nurturing imagery and “smiling” to
“dash’d the brains out” is horrifically
shocking for both a Jacobean
audience and a modern one. The
onomatopoeic “dash’d” makes the
violence all the more vivid
MACBETH
If we should fail?
LADY MACBETH
We fail!
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
CD H 9/1/14 22:12
Comment [36]: Shakespeare’s
deliberate short question as
Macbeth’s respose shows his
submission to her will
But stay brave
And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep—
And we won’t fail. When Duncan is sleeping
Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
Which he will be after a day’s hard journeying
Soundly invite him--his two chamberlains
While his guards
Will I with wine and wassail so convince
Shall be given wine by me
That memory, the warder of the brain,
And won’t remember anything
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only: when in swinish sleep
When they are sleeping like pigs,
Their drenched natures lie as in a death,
Asleep and dead the world
What cannot you and I perform upon
What will stop us doing anything to
The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon
CD H 9/1/14 22:17
Comment [37]: Sibilance makes the
actor salivate suggesting desire or
delight in the murderous plan further
emphasiing her disturbed character
The unguarded Duncan? What will stop us planting
His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt
What we want on his guards, who will be blamed?
Of our great quell?
MACBETH
Bring forth men-children only;
I hope no more women are ever born
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Because your strength should only create
Nothing but males. Will it not be received,
Men. Won’t it seem that
When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two
The blood-covered guards have done it when we
Of his own chamber and used their very daggers,
Plant the daggers on them?
That they have done't?
LADY MACBETH
Who dares receive it other,
Who will dare to suspect otherwise?
As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar
Because we will loudly grieve the next day.
Upon his death?
MACBETH
CD H 9/1/14 22:17
Comment [38]: Again the gender
theme is presented as Macbeth calls
for no more women to be born if they
are all as ruthless as Lady M
I am settled, and bend up
Ok I will do it
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
And will put everything into this terrible thing
Away, and mock the time with fairest show:
Go now and pretend
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
CD H 9/1/14 22:16
Exeunt
Comment [39]: The repetition of false
again reveal Macbeth’s disgust at his
own planned actions.
Social context:
Shakespeare writes this in early 1600s. King James I of England was Scottish. His
mother Mary Queen of Scots was executed by her sister Elizabeth I. Shakespeare
could be suggesting that Lady Macbeth is like Elizabeth I and blood-thirsty, able
to murder a relative to have power.
Before the reign of the Tudors (Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VII, Mary and
Elizabeth) the ruthless powerlust of British rulers was evident in the Houses of York
and Lancaster. Brothers murdered brothers to hold power.
Elizabeth I was also the longest reigning queen of England when she dies. She
held power as a female in a male-dominated, patriarchal society. Perhaps
Shakespeare is reflecting the power she showed as a woman in Lady Macbeth’s
“unsex me here” speech
James I was really scared of witches, having written the book “Daemonologie”
so Shakespeare appeals to his patron King by having witchcraft and evil spirits in
the speech.
HAVISHAM – BY CAROL ANN DUFFY
Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then
I haven't wished him dead. Prayed for it
so hard I've dark green pebbles for eyes,
ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with.
CD H 8/1/14 23:03
Comment [40]: The “Miss” of her title
has gone – why?
CD H 8/1/14 23:04
Comment [41]: Juxataposition shows
her damaged and divided state of
mind. She hates him because she
loves/loved him.
CD H 8/1/14 23:13
Comment [42]: Alliterative “B’ is a
deliberate aggressive aural choice
CD H 8/1/14 23:06
Comment [43]: Caesura makes the
reader pause. Also the divide in the
middle of the line reflects her isolation
and separation from him
CD H 8/1/14 23:07
Comment [44]: Enjambement in
numerous lines of the poem reflects
how her pain is ongoing
CD H 8/1/14 23:08
Comment [45]: The Caesura after
“dead” emphasises the finality of her
desire for him to die.
CD H 8/1/14 23:09
Comment [46]: Green – symbolises
jealousy
CD H 8/1/14 23:14
Comment [47]: Violent language
suggests a psychotic state of mind
Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days
in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dress
yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe;
the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself , who did this
CD H 8/1/14 23:15
Comment [48]: Caesura emphasises
her isolation
CD H 8/1/14 23:17
Comment [49]: Enjambement
emphasises the time that has passed
and her ongoing torture
CD H 8/1/14 23:21
Comment [50]: Animalistic imagery
crows caw – black dark imaery
CD H 8/1/14 23:21
to me? Puce curses that are sounds not words.
Some nights better , the lost body over me,
my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear
then down till suddenly bite awake. Love's
Comment [51]: Numerous caesure
break up the line, disturb the rhythm,
reflecting the fragmented and
damaged state of mind of the voice
CD H 8/1/14 23:20
Comment [52]: Cant even see him as
human so dehumanises him
CD H 8/1/14 23:21
Comment [53]: Innuendo
CD H 8/1/14 23:21
Comment [54]: Juxtaposition – lust
and violence
hate behind a white veil; a red balloon bursting
in my face. Bang. I stabbed at a wedding cake.
Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon.
Don't think it's only the heart that b-b-b-breaks.
CD H 8/1/14 23:23
Comment [55]: Oxymoron/juxtapositio
n shows her torn state of mind.
CD H 8/1/14 23:27
Comment [56]: Colour symbolises
violence or lust
... [1]
CD H 8/1/14 23:27
Comment [57]: Shocking juxtaposition
... [2]
CD H 8/1/14 23:27
Comment [58]: Sickening juxtaposition
CD H 8/1/14 23:27
Comment [59]: Mental state is so ... [3]
CD H 8/1/14 23:27
Comment [60]: The broken word ... [4]