"I'll be myself the harbinger
and make joyful the hearing
of my wife with your
approach"
Nota:
They seem to come as a pair, two halves of the same coin. Without her, Macbeth seems like a lost child despite being a vicious soldier on the battlefield. The imbalance of power between the two is noticeable to a Jacobean audience and it definitely suggests that the two rely on each other, without the other, one would fall or fail.
"This I have
thought food to
deliver thee"
"my dearest partner in
greatness"
"[you] shalt
be what
thou art
promis'd"
"To alter favour
ever is to fear"
Nota:
Lady Macbeth is impatient, dreading that Macbeth's compassion should kick in and she would have to forget her plan to be Queen, she bullies and pesters him in his indecisive state where she has more power to sway him, before he becomes "settled" not the wrong thing.
"From this time
such I account
thy love"
"Letting 'I dare not'
wait upon 'I would' like
the poor cat i' th'
adage"
"You do unbend your
noble strength to think
so brainsickly of things"
Nota:
She tries to encourage Macbeth to close off his compassion, like she begged to the Supernatural creatures to do to herself. She emulates the witches in her impact over Macbeth.
"Tis the eye of childhood
that fears a painted devil"
"I dare do all that may become a man"
Nota:
Lady Macbeth taunts Macbeth with his masculinity. His weakness in her eyes is his compassion and that lack in herself becomes her strength, because without her 'lack' of compassion, the Macbeths would not get anywhere. Lady Macbeth drives masculinity out of Macbeth because she is incapable of doing the same for herself.
HER LIMITATIONS AS
A WOMAN
"the valour of my
tongue"
Nota:
Like Cathy, Lady Macbeth's sword and weapon is her tongue. And it is even more powerful than physicality.
"pour my
spirits in thine
ear"
Nota:
HAMLET. Emulating the villainy of her by comparing her to Hamlet's uncle.
"unsex me here"
Nota:
Being a woman is her limitation. She cannot do what she wants as a woman, like Beatrice. She needs to be a man to avenge and succeed in the way she wants to. She wishes to lose her womanhood, like the witches, for power. It seems you cannot be both. Cathy is both, free from conventions of society, and she is a force to be reckoned with, completely destructive.
stop up th' access and
passage to remorse that no
compunctious visitings of
nature"
"take my milk for gall"
"I would...have pluck'd
my nipple from his
boneless gums, and
dash'd the brains out"
Nota:
Lady Macbeth takes something so natural, breast milk, and twists it into something evil or weak. She truly tries to abandon womanhood and maternity but is she successful? Perhaps on the surface only.
"the fatal
entrance of
Duncan under my
battlements"
Nota:
The castle is Macbeth's but she talks about it as if it were her own. Is that without Macbeth present, in play, she acts as if she is the one in power truly, instead of just behind the scenes? Does she dream of doing the killing herself, even if she knows she can't? Does she live through Macbeth?
HER CONSCIENCE
"That which hath
made me drunk
hath made me bold"
Nota:
She has to drink to stomach this? Surely, if she was that evil, her sobriety would be enough to kill the King?
"Consider it not
so deeply"
Nota:
Is this her method?
"These deeds must not be
thought [of]...it will make
us mad"
Nota:
Does the deed drive her mad? Is her faint real or fake?
"Help me hence, ho!"
"My hands are of your
colour, but I shame to
wear a heart so white."
Nota:
How true is this? She goes mad later. She surely must feel some shame or at least, regret.
"What, in our house?"
Nota:
A false attempt at covering up her own steps. Is it, like Macbeth, about the reputation for her? Is their only worry about how this will turn out for them>