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LM assumes the masculine role in her relationship with M – this is courageous, she subverts the expectations of a Jacobean women.

“ignorant present” Word choice of ignorant has negative connotations , this shows her utter disgust of the current situation. Her current situation would be envied by most of Jacobean society – she is in the upper echelons of society, so this shows her insatiable ambition.

What is interesting is if we look at the first words uttered by LM and M on seeing each after a long time apart.

LM says: “Great Glamis, Worthy Cawdor”. It is interesting to note that she refers to his titles and status. Clearly this is how she look son him – as a status, and from him she gains status. This shows the reader that the thing uppermost in her mind is status and hence her ambition, and shows her obsession with power. She sees her husband as a role, not as her love. In contrast, Macbeth’s first utterance to his wife is: “Dearest love”. This is juxtaposed to his wife’s welcome and shows the reader that he, in contrast, sees his wife for exactly that: his wife, his love.

 

LM commands her husband: “look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it”. LM is encouraging her husband to be deceitful. Just as a snake is poisonous, deadly but also often unnoticed  suggesting that he have these qualities when dealing with Duncan. She is here corrupting him, however Shakespeare (through the use of the supernatural) has already informed the reader that Macbeth is easily persuaded. Macbeth is gullible and malleable, but perhaps not the driving force or as strong and determined as LM.  He is vulnerable to her persuasion as his first words to her show his utter love and dedication to her. He is a devoted husband.

 

Act 1 Scene 6

Where Lady Macbeth in the same property saw a “raven”, Banquo (in the company of Duncan) saw a “martlet”. A martlet live in churches and so is associated with religion, purity and innocence thus linking Duncan and his party with purity. Shakespeare uses bird imagery to juxtapose the two groups.

On seeing Lady Macbeth Duncan repeats the word love and references God – showing his good character and aligns him with religion (again).

Duncan when speaking to LM and M talks of love.

The Jacobean audience would be appalled at the plan of regicide but more so the reader sees, due to Shakespeare’s portrayal, that Duncan is a good king. 

 

 

KEY SPEECH ACT 1 SCENE 7

 “if it were done” -  Macbeth uses the conditional tense showing his doubt that continues to plague him regarding his plan to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth on the other hand shows no doubt at any point leading up to the murder.

“we’d jump the life to come” – this means that Macbeth is aware that if he kills the King he will not go to heaven and will not have any kind of life after death – this shows that Macbeth does indeed have a conscience. Either this can show Macbeth to be human and religious to some extent, or it can be argued that the fact he continues with plan despite being aware of the after effects in terms of religion and spirituality shows his utter lack of care and lack of religion as he overrides his conscience – he knows what he does is wrong.

“that we but teach bloody instructions, which being taught, return to plague th’ inventor” – here Macbeth (before the regicide of Duncan takes place) shows the reader he understands the terrible consequences of murderous actions. He makes it clear that he knows if he kills, he in turn will likely be killed. This shows Macbeth to be reckless ultimately as, despite this insight, he does in fact “teach bloody instructions”. The repetition of bloody, which has pervaded the text from the very beginning, furthers the theme of tragedy and murder. Also the use of this word in association with Macbeth highlights his murderous tendencies. Furthermore the metaphor of plague shows that, just as a plague is near impossible to stop, affects a large amount of the population and is deadly, the consequences of Macbeth’s actions will be difficult to stop and will be devastating to many, resulting in a high number of casualties (not just Macbeth).

 

There is a lot of symmetry in the language between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth – perhaps showing their similar vile natures.

“I have given suck” – perhaps on realising that LM has given birth and lost her child, the audience can begin to understand her current barbarity.  Clearly she has experienced trauma, the same level of trauma cannot be said to have been experienced by Macbeth.

“I would…Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums and dash’d the brains out”

Lady Macbeth is shown to be ferocious and unnatural. Firstly the word choice of “pluck’d” has suggestions of being unnatural, violent and causing significant harm – it is going against nature to produce something unnatural. It is making something vulnerable. This shows that she would use unnatural violence to remove her own newborn baby from her chest. Furthermore the word choice of “dah’s” firstly with the plosive d suggest an extreme of violence and the word choice has suggestions of violence, being uncaring and commtiing violence with a clear purpose.