Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Choose one of the Lady Macbeth's soliloquies in Shakespeare's Macbeth and analyze it.Macbeth by William Shakespeare

In Shakespeare' Macbeth, Lady Macbeth
also delivers a soliloquy that allows us to look deep into the heart of the woman who
drives Macbeth to murder Duncan—his King, his friend, his cousin,
and his houseguest (a terrible act in those
days).


Lady Macbeth notes the presence of a raven, a bird
associated with death, as it "croaks" Duncan's approach, which Lady Macbeth has already
decided will be his last entrance, to her castle. Here she calls on the dark spirits to
change her so that she may be as hard and vicious as necessary to do what must be done
to kill the King. She wants to no longer have the characteristics of a woman ("unsex me
here") and make her capable of great cruelty, something that does not (according to
Shakespeare) come naturally to a woman (the "gentler" sex). She asks that her blood be
thickened, and the passage to conscience and remorse within her be blocked so she feels
no guilt, so nothing stands between her and what she intends to
do.



The raven
himself is hoarse


That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
(40)


Under my battlements. Come, you
spirits


That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me
here


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,(45)


That no compunctious visitings of
nature


Shake my fell purpose nor keep peace
between


The effect and
it!



She then asks the spirits
of darkness ("murdering ministers") that lend strength to "human mischief" to make her
mother's milk, something associated with love and nurturing of a child, be made
poisonous ("gall").


readability="14">

Come to my woman's
breasts,


And take my milk for gall, you murdering
ministers,


Wherever in your sightless substances
(50)


You wait on nature's
mischief!



Next, Lady Macbeth
addresses the cover of night, asking it to bring the dark mists of hell around her so
that (personifying her weapon) her knife does not "see" the wound it intends to make in
the good, "God-chosen" King; to make it dark enough that even heaven cannot see what she
intends to do to and (personification again) "cry out" that she
"Stop!"



Come,
thick night,


And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of
hell,


That my keen knife see not the wound it
makes,


Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the
dark


To cry, “Hold,
hold!”(55)



At this point
Macbeth enters, and Lady Macbeth repeats the predictions listed in his letter to her;
she speaks of her joy. She will now begin to poison his mind so
that he will not balk at what must be done, not only so he can be
King, but that she can become Queen.

No comments:

Post a Comment

What accomplishments did Bill Clinton have as president?

Of course, Bill Clinton's presidency will be most clearly remembered for the fact that he was only the second president ever...