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READ THIS
In this scene we are introduced to Lady Macbeth. Unlike her husband whom we saw as a valiant soldier
and one whom all Scotland honoured as its saviour, Lady Macbeth is presented as a cunning manipulator.
Indeed, she's a ruthless woman who will stop at nothing to attain her objectives. From the very first word
she speaks, one realises that murder is never far from her mind.
THE SCHEMING OF LADY MACBETH
Macbeth's visit to the witches puts him in a state of mental vacillation. They had promised him the crown
but didn't say how he would obtain it.
Lady Macbeth puts all doubt out of mind. The moment she receives her husband's letter explaining his
strange visit to the witches, she jumps to an immediate conclusion that her husband will indeed be king
although he must murder Duncan to win the crown.
At the same time, she realises that Macbeth has a loyal nature. He has the ambition to become king but
not the courage to murder.
She decides that it will be her task to manipulate him into the deed. To do this, she calls upon all the evil
spirits in the world to fill her with absolute cruelty, that no hint of kindness will remain in her body.
When Macbeth arrives and announces that Duncan intends to spend the night in their castle, Lady
Macbeth leaps into action. She immediately instructs her husband how to act so that he will not be
suspected of any foul plans.
The audience knows that, with such an introduction, Macbeth has little chance to resist. He will be coaxed
and bullied into murder.
We are also presented with a man who would appear to be much weaker than his wife -- or is her
strength merely a facade to hide a softer inner nature?
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
Lady Macbeth enters the stage reading a letter.
- Who wrote this letter and why was it written? (4)
[Need help?]
Macbeth wrote the letter, didn't he?
It was to inform his wife of his meeting with the witches, of his being given the title "Thane of
Cawdor" and to let her know of the prophecy that he would one day be king -- and, of course, that
she would be queen.
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- What was Lady Macbeth's immediate reaction to the letter? What was her intention after reading
it? (4)
[Need help?]
When Lady Macbeth received the letter, she was afraid that her husband had too soft a nature to become
king in the swiftest way possible, i.e. by murdering Duncan.
It was her intention, therefore, to whisper evil thoughts into his ear, and to work on him until he was ready
to commit murder.
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"Yet do I fear thy nature:
It is too full o'the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way."
- What did Lady Macbeth mean when she said this of her husband? (4)
[Need help?]
To answer this, you need to remember the following points:
- Macbeth has been presented as a thoroughly noble and loyal general;
- He has the absolute trust of the king;
- His castle is the home of peace and tranquility.
Was there any wonder that Lady Macbeth believed that her husband was full of the milk of human
kindness, that he would never voluntarily murder the king?
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When the attendant announced that the king would be coming to their castle for the night, Lady Macbeth
responded, "Thou'rt mad to say it."
- Explain her peculiar answer. (4)
[Need help?]
Having just stated her intention of persuading Macbeth to murder Duncan, Lady Macbeth heard that the
king was going to spend that very night in her castle.
She cannot believe the news! The king would be there so soon, and she must plan immediately for his
assassination.
And yet, one should ask: is Lady Macbeth really a woman of steel? Do these words not perhaps reveal
her soft underbelly, that the thought of murder actually terrified her?
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"The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements."
- What is the significance of the raven? (2)
[Need help?]
The raven is a bird long associated with death. Indeed, it was said that the raven would be there to
announce the death of a person.
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- Why should the raven be "hoarse"? (2)
[Need help?]
With the assassination of Duncan, says Lady Macbeth, the raven would be shouting the news of the king's
death for so long and so loudly that even he would be so hoarse that he would lose his own voice.
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Contrast what we already know of the character of Macbeth with Lady Macbeth as she is presented in this
scene. (6)
[Need help?]
You need to draw up a list of what you know of each of them:
- Macbeth: loyal, trusted by everyone, brave, etc;
- Lady Macbeth: calls down evil spirits upon herself, plans the murder of her king, etc.
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"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!'"
- Comment on Lady Macbeth's character as revealed in these lines. (4)
[Need help?]
A woman is traditionally thought of as being a gentle person, kind-hearted and tender.
A man, on the other hand, has been traditionally thought of as a fighter, hard and ruthless by nature, and
without emotion and capable of doing dreadful deeds.
Yet it is Lady Macbeth who calls on the evil spirits to take away her woman's soft nature and give her the
characteristics of a man, capable of committing the worst possible atrocity.
She defies every characteristic that one would expect to find in a woman.
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