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What does Lady Macbeth mean by "metaphysical aid" in line 29 of the
passage?

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Answer:

Step-by-step explanation:

The line you mentioned, "metaphysical aid," is from the play "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare. It is spoken by Lady Macbeth in Act 1, Scene 5, when she is reading a letter from Macbeth that details his encounter with the witches and their prophecy. The specific line is:

"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,

That no compunctious visitings of nature

Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between

The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,

And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,

Wherever in your sightless substances

You wait on nature's mischief! 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!'"

In this passage, Lady Macbeth is calling upon supernatural forces, specifically "spirits" or "metaphysical aid," to remove her feminine qualities and fill her with cruelty and remorselessness. She wants to be stripped of her natural compassion and maternal instincts so that she can carry out the evil actions required to help her husband, Macbeth, seize the throne. The phrase "metaphysical aid" refers to the assistance or power derived from supernatural or otherworldly entities. Lady Macbeth is essentially asking for the aid of these spirits to alter her nature and enable her to commit acts of violence without remorse.

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