Question

Explore how Shakespeare presents the character of Lady Macbeth in this extract.

You must refer to the text to support your answer.(20 marks )



Act 1 Scene 5 Macbeth

LADY MACBETH:

The raven himself is hoarse

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan 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, 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!'

Enter MACBETH

Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor! Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter! Thy letters have transported me beyond This ignorant present, and I feel now The future in the instant.

Explore how Shakespeare presents

Answer 1

Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth with a strong sense of ambition and greed which would have been expected more in a man when this was written, implying she is no longer a feminine character. The quote "Unsex me here" implies she doesn't want the gender bias that will come with being a ruler. She is openly rejecting femininity which would have been foreign to the audience watching the play at the time.

Furthermore, Lady Macbeth is presented as an evil being, associating with demons and the suoernatural. This would have terrified the audience as most people were very religious and superstitious. Likewise, the king at the time King James was obsessed with demonology and witchcraft. The play was written for the King, and this would have interested him. We see in the quote Come you spirits, tend on mortal thoughts" she is calling upon demons to help her in this crime and turn her pure with cruelty. This shows that Lady Macbeth is evil as Macbeth was approached by witches whereas his wife calls upon them.

In addition, Lady Macbeth is presented as a fem fatal - the female villain-. We see this in the quote "come to my womans breasts and take my milk for gall" this suggests she is rejecting the only thing that was seen as any value in a woman and replaces it with poison. Shakespeare is breaking the female stereotype of the Jackobean era, a woman had to be delicate, submissive and sweet whereas Lady Macbeth rebels against her expectations and becomes the most dangerous villain of the play.