Lady Macbeth Quotes

the milk of human kindness - lady macbeth

Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5. Lady Macbeth fears that her husband is too compassionate to be able to murder Duncan to make the Witches’ prophecy that he will be king come true. A metaphor likens human kindness to “milk,” conjuring up a feminine image that is maternal and nurturing. Lady Macbeth’s words are ironic, since it suggests that Lady Macbeth is a lot less full of that milk than her husband. The passage also suggests that Macbeth is not totally evil at this point.

Thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5. Lady Macbeth accepts that her husband is not lacking in ambition. But she is afraid that he doesn’t enough wickedness – “the illness” – to achieve greatness. Determined that Macbeth will be king, she doesn’t know if he has the killer instinct to do what needs to be done – kill Duncan. “Illness” is a metaphor for the ruthlessness needed to commit regicide.

Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
To have thee crown’d withal.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5. In her soliloquy Lady Macbeth bids her husband to hurry home so that she can set in motion her plan to spur him to usurp the crown. She uses the metaphor “pour my spirits in thine ear” to describe how she will whisper words of evil and transfer her spirit into Macbeth, as if to possess him. She will use the courage of her woman’s tongue to rid him of everything that holds him back from the crown. Here we are seeing Lady Macbeth aligned with the Witches as the Fourth Witch. In a nod to the weird sisters she says that Macbeth has already been crowned by “metaphysical aid” and “fate.” Now that she views herself as future queen, she will stop at nothing to achieve her goal.

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.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5. This soliloquy spoken by Lady Macbeth after reading her husband’s letter is one of the most famous quotes in the play. The passage is an elaborate extended metaphor. Lady Macbeth appeals to the evil spirits from hell to fill her with cruelty and to metaphorically thicken her blood. She wants to block the flow of natural feelings of conscience and remorse, so that she can carry out the unthinkable deed of murdering the king. Calling on the spirits to strip her of her femininity and compassion, she desires to be transformed into the stereotypical ruthless male. Her ambition for power has set her on a course for evil.
take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers - lady macbeth

Come to my woman’s breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5. Lady Macbeth’s words touch on the theme of femininity and masculinity. She pleads with the evil spirits to take away her nurturing nature. She believes that womanhood hampers her from acts of violence and cruelty. Attempting to summon up the courage to kill King Duncan, she begs the spirits to metaphorically turn the milk inside her breasts into something poisonous. She wants nothing to stand in the way of her husband being king.

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!”

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5. There are many examples of light and darkness symbolism in Macbeth, this passage being one of them. Lady Macbeth calls on the night to cover up the sight of the knife when she carries out the murder of Duncan. The metaphor of a blanket is used to signify the dark. Personification is also employed – “knife see” and “heaven peep.” In her terrifying soliloquy the ambitious Lady Macbeth shows herself to be more ruthless than her husband. Her evil and her link to the Witches is emphasized by her reference to “hell.” Her ambition and desire to be queen know no bounds.

Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor!
Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5. Lady Macbeth’s first words to Macbeth on his return from bloody battle are not, as one might expect from a wife, words of endearment. Instead they are how the Witches addressed him. Lady Macbeth greets her husband by his titles. She is less interested in the fact that he has returned home safely and more in her own quest for power through his advancement. The link between Lady Macbeth and the Witches illustrates the theme of the supernatural in this passage.
look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under 't

Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under ‘t.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5. Lady Macbeth reveals her true nature as an evil woman who goads her husband into regicide. She coaches him on how to act when he greets King Duncan as a guest at their castle. To beguile the people of their time, he must look like them, she advises. She warns him not to let facial expressions betray his murderous thoughts and uses a simile to compare his face to a book that can easily be read by others. Using simile and metaphor, she tells him to put on the appearance of innocence to deceive those around them and hide their evil intent from their victim Duncan. Her instruction “be the serpent” is an allusion to the Biblical story of the devil as a snake tempting Eve to eat the apple in the Garden of Eden. This is one of the most memorable quotes from the play.

LADY MACBETH: He that’s coming
Must be provided for: and you shall put
This night’s great business into my dispatch;
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
MACBETH: We will speak further.
LADY MACBETH: Only look up clear;
To alter favour ever is to fear:
Leave all the rest to me.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5. In this scene Lady Macbeth is presented as the main villain of the play. When she tells her husband that King Duncan must be “provided for,” she is not talking about the hospitality they intend to lavish on their guest. Instead she has something more sinister in mind. She uses the euphemism “this night’s great business” to refer to the unspeakable act of the assassination of the King. When Macbeth appears to hesitate – “We will speak further” – his wife shuts this down quickly. She has the last word, instructing him to stay calm, not to show any fear, and leave all the rest to her. She effectively emasculates him in this scene. It is clear that Lady Macbeth holds the power and wears the pants in this relationship.

Was the hope drunk,
Wherein you dress’d yourself? hath it slept since,
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time
Such I account thy love.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7. Lady Macbeth counterattacks after her husband refuses to carry out the plan to kill the King. Using a clothing metaphor and personification, she asks if his earlier hope was drunk when he dressed himself in it. Lady Macbeth proves to be even more ambitious than Macbeth for him to be king. She employs emotional blackmail when she equates the level of her love for him to his commitment to killing Duncan.

I have given suck, and know
How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7. Lady Macbeth is the complete antithesis of what most people’s image of a woman and mother is. She describes herself as having been a loving and nurturing mother in the past. But she shockingly admits she would kill her own suckling baby before abandoning the plan to seize power and take the Scottish throne. Consumed with uncontrolled ambition, she is prepared to use every means to pressurize and shame Macbeth into killing Duncan. Lady Macbeth’s extreme words paint a picture of a woman with a very disturbed mind, foreshadowing her later descent into complete madness.

That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold,
What hath quenched them hath given me fire.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2. Lady Macbeth has played an active part in the murder of King Duncan. She drugged Duncan’s guards’ drink, enabling her husband to kill him. The success of the criminal enterprise has given her confidence, a kind of Dutch courage, as she experiences a feeling of empowerment. It has metaphorically given the ambitious Lady Macbeth “fire,” or strength.

It was the owl that shriek’d, the fatal bellman,
Which gives the stern’st good-night.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2. Lady Macbeth hears an owl shriek at the time her husband is meant to be murdering Duncan. In a metaphor she compares the owl to a bellman or town crier. The “fatal bellman” was the night watchman who rang a bell at the door of a condemned prisoner to summon him for execution. According to medieval folklore, the owl’s screech foretold the death of a person. This passage is foreshadowing of Duncan’s death. It is also an example of the use of supernatural animal imagery to signal a disruption in the natural order of things.

Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures: ’tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal;
For it must seem their guilt.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2. Lady Macbeth expresses disgust at Macbeth’s cowardice for failing to finish the job after murdering Duncan. She grabs the daggers used in the killing to place them with the sleeping guards, in order to frame them for the crime, a task she expected her husband to carry out. In a simile she compares the dead and sleeping to pictures. She accuses Macbeth of behaving like a child. Using a metaphor she says that she will gild the grooms’ faces with blood, so that they will appear guilty of the murder. While Macbeth’s conscience is troubled over the terrible thing that they have done, his wife’s is certainly not. Lady Macbeth is very dominating and manipulative in this scene, and basically wearing the pants in the marriage.
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