Shakespeare for the Shocked

Oh my heck! What a character is Lady Macbeth! Seriously, she is wacked. And wicked. And weird. And sick. And startling. And shocking. She's the very antithesis of a lady. And her husband is not much better. As you might have been able to divine, I just finished reading Macbeth. And talk about creepy, those Weird Sisters! I can't say I enjoyed this Shakespeare play--it was pretty depressing and full of intrigue and selfishness and murder and just down right depressing; but I am glad I read it because now I understand better the magnitude of the sickness of Lady Macbeth, and can understand the depth of horror that should accompany a reference to her name. Seriously, if anyone calls me a Lady Macbeth, I'll know to be properly horrified. Still, by studying the follies of others perhaps we can more readily recognize and thereby avoid them in ourselves, and I have plenty of thoughts to share about this play. So, since brevity is the soul of wit, I'll get on with my analysis.

Play Summary:

For anyone not familiar with the plot, The Tragedy of Macbeth is about a man, Macbeth, who meets three witches who prophesy that he will become the king of Scotland. They also prophesy that another man, Banquo, will have descents who become kings. When the current king names his son as heir, Macbeth is confused, and at urging from his wife, plots to kill the current king. This is where Lady Macbeth is really sick--she berates her husband for his reluctance to kill the king with pretty strong language, but I'll talk more about that later. They succeed in their plot, Macbeth becomes an apparently tyrannical king; in seeking to cover his tracks he kills another man's wife and children; to prevent his dirty work (of killing the king) work for the benefit of Banquo, he sends someone to kill him and his son. His wife eventually go crazy, other nobles begin to catch on, the king's son, who had fled to England to raise an army when the king was killed, comes back with the support of Macduff and other nobles. Macduff kills Macbeth and the tyranny is toppled.

General Lady Macbeth Highlights

Seriously, you could write a novel about Lady Macbeth. But you might not be able to stand to read it. So here are a couple of particularly shocking gems that stood out to me regarding this saint.

When she finds out what is prophesied of for her husband, she immediately thinks that he is too weak to take the necessary measures to make it come to pass. She says of his nature, "it is too full o' the milk of human kindness." One might think that is an attribute a woman would wish for in a husband. But Lady Macbeth is no ordinary woman. In fact, she wishes she were not a woman at all: Just a few lines later, she proclaims "unsex me here;" then she goes on to hope that her natural inclination for all that is natural and charitable do not prevent her from her dastardly deeds. The whole speech is so appalling, rather than trying to summarize it, I'll just include it her. The actor that was reading this section in the Librivox recording did an incredible job, btw.

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, your 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!"

She doesn't want her conscious to stop her! And she recognizes that it is a danger! She truly has rebelled against all that is good. So that's just a taste of Lady Macbeth. She's quite a character.