Identify and analyze the soliloquy of Lady Macbeth, in Act Five, scene one, of Shakespeare's Macbeth.

In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Lady
Macbeth's soliloquy in Act Five, scene one, is broken up with talk between the Doctor
and the Gentlewoman. During her speech, Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking, unaware of what
she says. It is easy to understand why the doctor feels this information should remain a
secret, for to know what things Lady Macbeth is talking about could mean death at the
King's hands.

While a href="http://www.reference.com/browse/soliloquy">soliloquy is
usually addressed to the character him- or herself, or to the
audience (which is not the case here), what is most important is
that it shares the character's hidden feelings or
thoughts.

It
is most commonly used to reveal the innermost concerns or thoughts of the
speaker...

In this scene, the
doctor is there to help Lady Macbeth. Though she seemed guiltless when they murdered
Duncan, that is no longer the case. In fact, it so preys on her mind that she walks in
her sleep and relives several murders—even the murders she had no
part in, haunt her dreams, as she also refers to the deaths of Banquo and Macduff's
family.

The first section of Lady Macbeth's dialogue is as
famous for her character as Macbeth's "dagger" and "Tomorrow" speeches. In this part of
the play, the Queen is reliving the murder of Duncan. She had originally told Macbeth
that a little water would cleanse them of any guilt in Duncan's murder, speaking as
casually as if she were asking about the weather.

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A little water clears us of this deed:

How easy is it then!
(II.ii.85-86)

However, we now
hear her words as she tries to remove a spot, most likely symbolic
of removing the stain of guilt they bear rather than a stain on clothing. She refers
also to counting—the tolling of the bell to signal the time to move, Macbeth's cowardice
even though he is a soldier, how no one would dare accuse them of murder, and the amount
of blood in Duncan.

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LADY
MACBETH:

Out, damned spot! Out, I say!
One–two—

why then ’tis time to do't. Hell is murky. Fie, my
lord, fie!

A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who
knows it,

when none can call our power to account? Yet who
would

have thought the old man to have had so much blood
in

him? (V.i.31-36)

Next Lady
Macbeth refers to the murder of Macduff's wife and children (the "Thane of Fife"); she
frets over the fact that the blood (guilt) will not be washed away, and also chides
Macbeth for his fear during the murder of Duncan—that his behavior will give them
away:

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LADY
MACBETH:

The Thane of Fife had a wife; where
is she

now? What, will these hands ne'er be clean? No more
o’

that, my lord, no more o’ that. You mar all with
this

starting.
(38-41)

Then the Queen speaks
directly to her sense of remorse, wondering if there is no perfume that can remove
("sweeten") the depth of her guilt.

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LADY
MACBETH:

Here's the smell of the blood
still. All the perfumes

of Arabia will not sweeten this
little hand. Oh, oh,

oh!
(45-47)

The Doctor observes
the depth of his patient's sorrow, and the Gentlewoman says she would not change places
with Lady Macbeth, even to be queen. Here the sleeping woman refers to the death of
Banquo—comforting Macbeth not to worry, for Banquo cannot return, but also confusing
this death with Duncan's when there was knocking at the door and they needed dress like
they had been asleep. (Lady Macbeth was unaware of the plans for Banquo's
murder.)

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LADY
MACBETH:

Wash your hands, put on your
nightgown;

look not so pale. I tell you yet again, Banquo's
buried; he

cannot come out on's grave.
(56-58)