Macbeth Act 1 Scene 5 by William Shakespeare

Act 1 Scene 5

Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy:

●     Lady Macbeth has just read the message from Macbeth about the three witches and their predictions. Macbeth has already had the idea of killing King Duncan but did not include this in his letter. However Lady Macbeth, being almost the splitting image of Macbeth, knows what he is plotting and takes the final step into encouraging him to do it. This is shown in the line “and shalt be what thou art promised” in line 2.

o      Note the confidence that Macbeth has of the prediction to be true.

▪       This was due to the fact that they were of magic properties “I have learned by the perfectest report that they have more in them than mortal knowledge”. This “report” was their true prediction about him becoming the “Thane of Cawdor, by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me…”. He is, intentionally, trying to draw Lady Macbeth into the idea that he could becoming King and that murder would be the way to do it, if not speed up the process “and referred me to the coming on of time with ‘Hail, king that shalt be!...”

▪       This is similar to saying in modern language “These witches, who had a 100% correct prediction rate so far on what I thought was two absurd predictions, just told me that I would be king in the future! Strange right? Heh heh”. In my opinion, this letter would already have put Macbeth in a very suspicious light.

o      Note the close relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth

▪       “my dearest partner of greatness”

▪       At the time, women were of a lower stature and the fact that Macbeth treats her as a woman of the same stature as him by saying that ‘everything that I have ever done is because of you, thus the word “partner”. The point of him saying something that he holds so dear to him (the prediction of the witches) also adds to the idea that he can tell anything to his wife, that they are truly joined spiritually.

▪       “Lay it to thy heart”

●     Note the choice of words rather than ‘think about it’. This was specially used by Macbeth so as to create a rather romantic mood to the end of the letter, illustrating that at the end of the letter he loves her. In modern language, this would be similar to ending of a letter with ‘with love… Matthew’

●     However, Lady Macbeth is aware of his kind nature, as shown in the lines “Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness” in line 3 and 4. She thus attempts to use very powerful forms of persuasion in order to convince Macbeth to kill King Duncan.

●     Lady Macbeth is fully convinced that Macbeth easily has the means of becoming King but only lacks the evil to carry out the one deed that is needed from him to become king. This is seen in the lines “Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it” in line 7 and 8.

●      Lady Macbeth fully believes that the shortest route to success is the one that is made through evil. Thus she finds it frustrating that “Thou shouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false”. Note the reference to divine in the word “holily”, which would have been very appropriate considering that James I was of the Church of Scotland.

●     Lady Macbeth, knowing that Macbeth has a real shot of actually becoming king, is spurred on by the witches as she believes them to be magic. “… Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem to have thee crowned withal”. Therefore similar to how Macbeth is persuaded by Lady Macbeth to kill King Duncan, Lady Macbeth is persuaded by the witches.

Lady Macbeth and the servant

●     In this scene, Shakespeare attempts to show us how close the relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth is simply by the inclusion of the servant within the scene.

●     “Thou’rt mad to say it. Is not thy master with him who, were’t so, would have informed for preparation?

●     Within this scene, Lady Macbeth illustrates the idea that he is able to predict Macbeth’s every move, for she knows that the thought of killing Duncan is already in his head and although he tries to not admit it, Lady Macbeth knows that he would do something to show that he is tempted to carry out the deed. It is in this way that Shakespeare tries to illustrate the closeness between the two to the extent that one could predict the actions of the other, something that is very hard to do in this day and age.

●     Shakespeare accentuates Lady Macbeth’s ability to prove the point by allowing Lady Macbeth’s prediction to be correct. “So please you, it is true: our thane is coming”

o      Note the immediate use of the title, already empowering Macbeth and giving Lady Macbeth a bit more confidence. It is at this point that, although she wholeheartedly believes that it is true, Lady Macbeth hears the truth of what Macbeth has said with her own ears.

Lady Macbeth’s second soliloquy

●     Note the use of the raven

o      The raven is often thought of as having strong links to witchcraft and Lady Macbeth’s mention of the raven is similar to calling upon the magic that witchcraft utilises.

o      Alternatively, ravens are also related to evil and demonic entities. The use of the word “him” rather than ‘it’ gives rise to the idea that Lady Macbeth is predominantly calling out the devil. The fact that he is hoarse gives rise to the idea that he is hungry for blood and that he does not expect Duncan, the person that he has sent, to leave the area alive.

o      However in a literal sense, the raven is a reference to the messenger, and the fact that he is “hoarse” is just to mention the fact that he is short of breath.

●     Note Lady Macbeth’s confidence in being able to kill King Duncan.

o      “croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements”

o      Basically, she is already saying that Duncan will not leave this place alive.

o      This already accentuates the fact that she knows how to manipulate Macbeth to the extent that he will be able to kill Duncan.

o      Not the selection of words from Lady Macbeth. Despite a battle being fought and won, Lady Macbeth welcomes King Duncan to her “battlements” rather than a “home”, indicating the fact that despite the fight being over, another one has just begun, and their person of interest is going to be resting within the fort. It is in this way that Lady Macbeth gives the hose an image of being a prison or at least an area that provides no means for escape.

●     Lady Macbeth’s interaction with the supernatural

o      “come you spirits”

o      It is often thought that those who communicate with spirits are thought of as evil. In this case, considering that the play shows no background of her being in contact with such things show a huge attempt at her turn in character.

o      She asks the spirits to “unsex me here”. It is in this case that Lady Macbeth wants to rid herself of the disabilities of both sexes. That she be as courageous as a man to be able to persuade her husband to carry out the deed, yet to not be a man so as to not have to carry out the deed for herself. It is in this instant that we see that she is still quite unsure that she is able to carry out the task. Thus she asks for Macbeth to do it, saying that he should do it as a front so that she does not have to. We see that Lady Macbeth loves her husband, but perhaps not as much as she loves herself.

o      “fill me from the crown to the toe top – full of direst cruelty”

▪       Lady Macbeth is inherently not cruel. However she thinks that sacrificing herself for the sake of evil is what is needed of her for her to get what she wants for herself and her husband.

▪       Note the choice of words. The use of the word “crown” already illustrates the fact that she feels that the crown is already upon her head. This perhaps illustrates the fact that she is greedy for the crown for herself rather than for Macbeth. It is perhaps for this reason that she feels more guilty and thus goes fully insane sooner than Macbeth

o      “make thick my blood”

▪       Note that the toxins of a snake bite make blood thick. Similarly, perhaps Lady Macbeth is asking for the ‘toxins of temptation and greed’ to fill her blood, that she may be bit by the ‘biblical serpent’ rather than an actual one.

o      “Stop the access and passage the remorse, that no compunctious visitings of nature shake fell my purpose, nor keep peace between the effect of it!”

▪       Lady Macbeth already knows what is to come. She knows that she will feel sad and remorseful for what she has done. Perhaps knowing this before she committed the deed was what made her all feel guiltier than Macbeth ever did. However at the moment she asked that she may not feel guilty after what she has done which obviously did not come through. It shows that her conscience, despite the use of witchcraft, is still able to act and thus overpowers the powers of witchcraft or it could be Macbeth’s way of saying that witchcraft does not exist or does not plague the good. At the time, this would be good news for King James I as he has not been plagued with any form of witchcraft (because it isn’t real).

o      “Come to my woman’s breasts, and take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers”

▪       This is a subtle reference to a child that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth may have had. Considering that she calls them “murd’ring ministers”, we can assume that a miscarriage has occurred. The words “take my milk for gall” indicates that the milk that she has nurtured as a mother has thus gone to waste because of the death of the baby

o      “Come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell”

▪       Note Lady Macbeth’s use of personifying the night to look like a servant of the devil as evil is always done in the cover of the night. The use of the word “thick” is used to act as a physical shield so that the night can cover her from any from any form of detection. On the other hand, it can be used as an offensive tool, that the thickness of night drown or suffocate any of the righteous that may get in the way.

▪       A pall is used in funerals to cover the face of the dead. The use of the word pall is used to foreshadow the death of King Duncan. On the other hand, the word also be used to foreshadow her own death, as Lady Macbeth kills herself in the early hours of the morning.

▪       Dunnest is a word made up by Shakespeare. In many of the interpretations the word “Dunnest” is used for the word ‘darkest’. However I feel that the word sounds like ‘dullest’ rather than ‘darkest’. Therefore I think that the darkness is also meant to dull as well. Lady Macbeth is asking the darkness to judge her better judgement so that they will have the irrationality to carry out the deed. She would also want the darkness to dull the senses, making Macbeth hard to see in the dark and to make her less disconnected to the act that she is about to carry out.

▪       The lines “nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark to cry “hold, hold!” is a reference to the Divine Right of Kings, where kings are thought to be messengers from heaven. Lady Macbeth here is trying to illustrate the idea that Duncan is of the Divine Right of Kings and thus heaven looks favourably upon him. She knows that if she kill King Duncan she will not have a nice afterlife. However, having fully committed already to the act, all she can ask for is that heaven not see what she does and makes Macbeth do.

▪       She makes a last reference to the letter that Macbeth wrote, displaying the item itself as a symbol laden with evil intentions. Had the letter been lost or wrote in a different manner, would the King still have died? Similar to how the apple in the Garden of Eden brought evil to the world, the letter brought evil to Lady Macbeth. This makes one wonder: who is really at fault for all this tragedy? Macbeth or Lady Macbeth?

Macbeth’s talk with Lady Macbeth

●     Once again, we see the relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth with Macbeth’s first lines. “My dearest love”. The fact that these were his opening lines gives indication to the idea that he was thinking about him during the whole trip back. Thus, he probably made a beeline towards her as soon as he reached home. However, we do not see much desperation for Lady Macbeth to meet her husband. Does she perhaps love herself more than her husband? Or perhaps her husband love her more than she to him?

●     “Look like th’ innocent flower, but the serpent under ‘t” This is a reference to the biblical story of Adam and Eve, where the serpent is the one who tempts Adam to take the apple. This is rather ironic as it is Lady Macbeth who is the actual snake. 

●     “This night’s great business into my dispatch, which shall to all our nights and days to come give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.”

o      This is the full voice of a temptress; to promise an easy method to reach a reward that is far from easy or deserving of the person doing the job. Note that despite them doing the job in the end, the couple were to mad with guilt or paranoia to be able to enjoy the sovereign sway and masterdom that Lady Macbeth promised them.

●     “Only look up clear, to alter favour ever is to fear”

o      This basically means, ‘make your conscience look clear’. However, at the moment, Lady Macbeth is talking to herself. She has been the only one suggesting that they kill King Duncan. Often throughout the whole play, when she is talking to Macbeth, she is often talking to herself as she starts to get guiltier than Macbeth is paranoid. She then tries to say words of comfort to Macbeth not knowing that in reality she is saying words to herself.

●     “Leave all the rest to me”

o      Once again, the words of a temptress. In an attempt to make the plot sound easy to carry out, Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to leave everything to her.