![]() Finally? She asks that her breast milk be exchanged for "gall," or poison. (What? Well, being a woman and a mother makes her compassionate, so she wants the "passage" of childbirth to be blocked.) She wants her blood to be make thick, meaning both the blood in her veins but also her menstrual blood, the "visitings of nature" (1.5.52). She wants her "passage to remorse" to be stopped up-i.e., her vagina. It's pretty explicit: she asks the spirits to "unsex" her (1.5.48), stripping her of everything that makes her a reproductive woman. Literally, she means she's going to fill her husband's "ear" with harsh words that will help convince him to take action against Duncan, but there's also a sense that Lady Macbeth will "fill" her husband's body in the same way that women's bodies are "filled" or, impregnated by men.Īll of this is to say that Lady Macbeth is portrayed as masculine and unnatural. She also intends to "pour spirits in ear" when he returns home from battle (1.5.29). In fact, Lady Macbeth's whole "unsex me" speech aligns her with witchcraft and the supernatural (calling on spirits and talking about "smoke of hell" and "murdering ministers" sure sounds witchy to us). Remind us who the witch(es) are, again? Woman Up Not even Katherine Minola, who's notorious for having a tongue like a "wasp" in Taming of the Shrew, summons "murderous" spirits. And note that Shakespeare's leading ladies don't usually go around saying stuff like this. Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,Īre you thoroughly creeped out? If not, read it again-and really dwell on the part where she asks the spirits to "fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/ Of direst cruelty". ![]() That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,Īnd pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,Īnd take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between Stop up the access and passage to remorse, That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,Īnd fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Check out this famous speech where she psyches herself up for murder (but make sure the lights are on first): If her husband's going to be the powerful figure she wants him to be, Lady Macbeth's got to take things into her own hands. Lady Macbeth is a teensy bit worried that her man isn't quite man enough to do what it takes to be king he's "too full o' the milk of human kindness" (1.5.15). The Macbeths are the original power couple: where her husband is a courageous, skillful warrior, she's charming, attractive, and completely devoted to her husband's career. (Click the character infographic to download.)
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