Olivia's Online Journal

Character Analysis: Lady Macbeth

In Act 1 of ‘Macbeth’ By William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth is portrayed to the audience as insane,  ruthless, ambitious, and possibly even more powerful than her husband, Macbeth. In Scene 5, Act 1 of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth reads her famous soliloquy. This the first time the audience really get to see who she is-her purpose in the play and her ‘aspirations’ .
In this soliloquy, she reads Macbeth letter about his encounter with the weird sisters and speaks about their prophecies of him being thane of Cawdor and the king.
Lady Macbeth expresses to herself (and the audience) her worries about Macbeth. She believes he doesn’t have the ambition or courage to grasp the titles the sisters have told him. Her ambition drives her husband towards the cruel and desperate act of Duncan’s murder.
She says Macbeth is;
‘ Too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness’
She calls on the ‘spirits’ to ‘unsex’ her- to take away her femininity so she can kill Duncan. Later on, Macbeth arrives and she instructs him to leave the planning and killing in her hands.  

LADY MACBETH
The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-ful
Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood;
Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
Th’ effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murth’ring 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!’ (1.5.38–54)

Characters:
Duncan
Malcolm
Donalbain
Banquo
Lennox
Macduff
Ross
Angus

Location:
Macbeth’s Castle

Time: Midday

Summary:
In this scene of Macbeth, the characters arrive at Inverness. King Duncan comments on the sweetness of the air, and Banquo says birds must be nesting in the castle. It’s ironic that King Duncan comments on where he will die is beautiful. Lady Macbeth enters the scene and kindly greets the King and Thanes. Macbeth is nowhere to be seen, so the soon to be murder weighs more on him than his wife.

Quote:
” DUNCAN

Characters:
Lady Macbeth
Macbeth
Servant

Location:
Macbeth’s Castle

Time:
Morning

Summary:
In a room  in Macbeth’s castle, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are sitting together and reading a letter from her husband about a meeting with the witches. She believes everything the witches say is true. A servant comes into the scene and says that king Duncan will be staying the night and leave tomorrow. Lady Macbeth plans to carry out the murder that night. Lady Macbeth  said her husband is weak and doesn’t have the courage to kill Duncan. When Macbeth arrives back from Duncan’s Court, she reveals his plans to him.

” MACBETH

Characters:
Duncan
Malcolm
Banquo
Macbeth

Summary:
In the palace courtroom, King Duncan asks if the execution is done. Malcolm answers his father’s question. ‘I have spoke With one that saw him die.’ King Duncan gives thanks to Macbeth and Banquo for their part in the battle. Then, to the private astonishment of Macbeth, Duncan announces that his successor as king, when that may be, will be his son Malcolm.

Quote:
” DUNCAN

Characters:

First Witch
Second Witch
Third Witch

In this scene, the Witches have gathered apon the heath- as they said they would, and the first witch is telling how she was disrespected by a sailors wife so they plan to cause mischief on them. She says she has a pilots thumb so Macbeth has come.
Macbeth and Banquo are together and Macbeth says how his day has not been so good and bad at the same time. The Witches come before them and Banquo he askes Macbeth how far “these creatures” have come. He says they look like they should not belong on earth. He turns to them and askes if they can answer questions, they seem to understand him. He says they look women but their beards keep him from believing that they really are. Macbeth asks the witches what kind of creatures they are but they ignore him and give him all these praises.

” FIRST WITCH
All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis!
SECOND WITCH
All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!
THIRD WITCH
All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!
BANQUO
Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear
Things that do sound so fair? (to the WITCHES) I’ th‘ name of truth,
Are ye fantastical, or that indeed
Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner
You greet with present grace and great prediction
Of noble having and of royal hope,
That he seems rapt withal. To me you speak not.
If you can look into the seeds of time
And say which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak, then, to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favors nor your hate. ”

Characters:
King Duncan
Malcolm
Donalbain
Lennox
Attendants with a bleeding Sergeant

Location: A camp near Forres

Scene Summary:
At a military camp near King Duncan’s palace near Forres the scene begins with Malcolm, who is the kings son, introduces the captain who saved him in the battle against Scotland and the Irish invaders who are led by Macdonwald. The captain was wounded helping Duncan’s son Malcom who was captured by the Irish. Captain is covered in blood and explains to king that the Scottish generals Macbeth and Banquo fought with great courage and violence. He then describes how Macbeth killed the rebelling traitor Macdonwald. As the captain is taken to get himself fixed up, the thane of Ross, a Scottish nobelman enters the scene and tells the king that the traitorous thane of Cawdor has been defeated and the Norwegian army repelled. Duncan says that the thane of Cawdor be put to death and that Macbeth, the hero of the victorious army be given the Cawdors title – though Macbeth does not know it yet.

Quote by Captain:

” For brave Macbeth – Destaining fortune, with his brandished steel, Which smoked with bloody execution.”

Macbeth is seen as a hero because of killing the traitorous Macdonwald. They are unaware of what this small action would later spark in the near future in Macbeth.

Characters:
First Witch
Second Witch
Third Witch

Location:
A desert place

Scene Summary:
The Witches gather together and talk about when they will meet again. They decide to meet in an open field or hill before sunset, once the battle is over and someone has lost and won. There, they will meet Macbeth.

Quote:
“First Witch
When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

Second Witch
When the hurly-burly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.”

How could the people you are brought up and the people you hang out with influence you in the way you text and speak? (Cultural aspect)
20 years ago, how would the English language be then, compared to now?
Could your beliefs or morals influence you in any way?

Task: Determine a hypothesis and use it to head a new entry on your blog.

Is text language ruining the English language? English has been spoken for more than 80,000 years but over the course of the last 1000 years, it is developing constantly, with new words and expressions being developed to replace particular words.  With texting, we have created new words and developed them into new meanings, then making them into short abbreviations. For example, the abbreviation “lol” used to mean lots of love. Now, in our day it age it means “laugh out loud”. Are small things like these ruining the English language?

As shown above, when used out of context, the term ‘lol’ can come across in the wrong way, more so for adults who have not come across the ‘new’ meaning. The most common example would be:
Mum: G-ma has just gone into hospital. Not sure if it is serious yet. See you soon. Lol.

Text language has modernised the English language. Here in New Zealand, in an NCEA English exam, text abbreviations have been approved as long as the marker can see that the required paper “clearly shows the required understanding” .  Mr Bali Haque, who is the deputy chief executive of NZQA said, “Students should aim to make their answers as clear as possible. Markers involved in assessing NCEA exams are trained professionals, experienced in interpreting the variety of writing styles and language uses encountered during the marking process,”. This clearly shows how much text abbreviations are preferred. While writing in text abbreviations are not recommended in exams, it depends on how the students choose to write. Whether they think it is helpful- a time saver, or could portray that the student is lazy or sloppy in their writing.

(Not finished)

1) Yeah?

2) Oh fanks for answering geezer, you know what I mean?

3) Give me that! Where you been fool? Make us rinse out our credit leaving you messages and that.

2) Mr doors is well on the war path with you, bruv, yeah?

1) Cos of the bag and that?

2) What bag? Cos you missed the lesson you cheat!

3) Give me that! The bag wasn’t the problem, teggsy never mentioned it, he bottled it. You coming over to mine later to play computer?

1) Nah man, I’m at home now, I got business I gotta run.

3) What business?!

1) Business that minds it own, im out.