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The Only FIVE Lady Macbeth Quotes To Learn For Macbeth! | GCSE English Revision! — Transcript

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0:00[music]
0:03Hello and welcome to yet another lesson.
0:05Now, within this lesson, what I wanted
0:06to do was to show you the five most
0:08important character quotes to remember
0:11when it comes to Lady Macbeth's
0:12character, and more specifically, how
0:13you can analyze these quotations, which
0:16are taken from the beginning, middle,
0:17and end of the play, when it comes to
0:19her character, and how you can relate
0:21each of these five quotes, which I would
0:24argue are the most important quotes to
0:26remember for her character, and how you
0:27can relate them to themes, as well as
0:30context. Okay? So, how you can consider
0:32these quotations in terms of language
0:34and structure, themes, and context. Now,
0:37remember that Lady Macbeth's character
0:38is a very pivotal character. She is the
0:40one that basically gives Macbeth the
0:42final push, the final nudge. He is
0:45developing ambition. He's kind of not
0:48entirely sure if it's a good idea to
0:49kill the king. However, she's the one
0:50that nudges him and makes him take the
0:53leap into killing King Duncan and
0:55becoming king himself, surmounting and
0:58going above his position in the great
1:00chain of being. Now, when we first meet
1:03her, we realize she is an evil
1:05character. She has lots of ambition, and
1:06she's actually frustrated by her
1:08femininity. And this ties to the first
1:10quotation, where she is desperate to be
1:12a man, because she would rather just do
1:14the killings herself. And she cries out
1:17to the spirits. She says, "Come me,
1:18spirits that tend on mortal thoughts,
1:19unsex me." Okay? In other words, unsex
1:21me here, make me a man. I find it really
1:24frustrating that I'm trapped in this
1:25body as a woman. I can't really do very
1:27much, but because I can't do anything,
1:29I'm now going to use my husband. That's
1:30basically what she decides. Now, when it
1:32comes to this quotation, the first thing
1:34you need to remember is that she speaks
1:36in imperative sentences. She is
1:38commanding the supernatural. She's
1:40telling the supernatural what to do.
1:41She's telling the supernatural, "Make me
1:43a man. I want you, witches, um ghosts,
1:46and so on, supernatural world, to make
1:48me a man, because I find my femininity
1:51limiting." We can see here already the
1:53fact that she speaks in imperative
1:54sentences, she's a very commanding and
1:56very domineering figure, which goes
1:58against typical Jacobean women who are
2:01supposed to be really passive, quite
2:03quiet, and very submissive. Equally, the
2:06verb unsex me, so the word unsex, which
2:08means change my gender into being a man.
2:11Once more, what this verb is
2:12illustrating is that Lady Macbeth is so
2:15frustrated by being a woman because of
2:17all the limitations that she faces as a
2:19woman in Jacobean society. And of
2:21course, this quotation is taken from Act
2:231, Scene 5. Now, what do you relate to
2:26two when it comes to the themes? The
2:28first theme that we can relate this to
2:30is the theme of ambition. We can see
2:32here that Lady Macbeth is an incredibly
2:33ambitious woman. In fact, it seems like
2:35she has developed ambition way before
2:37Macbeth developed this ambition. And she
2:40sees his prophecies from the witches as
2:42just the perfect, perfect time to really
2:45convince him to kill the king.
2:47So, we can obviously see that she's
2:49incredibly ambitious and she's
2:50completely corrupted by this stage with
2:52ambition really early on in the play.
2:54Equally, this ties into the theme of the
2:56supernatural. We can see that Lady
2:57Macbeth is at home with the
2:58supernatural. She's at home with being
2:59close to spirits.
3:01She actually is happy to be aligned and
3:04close to devilish evil spirits if that's
3:06what it takes
3:07[music]
3:08to become powerful. She will do
3:09anything. Now, what you can tie it to
3:12when you're considering context is how
3:14Jacobean audiences, so Shakespeare's
3:16Jacobean audience, saw Lady Macbeth as
3:18the fourth witch. She was so evil, she
3:21was so ambitious, she was so not what a
3:23Jacobean woman should be like that they
3:25said, "No, no way. She must be one of
3:27the fourth witches." Because of course,
3:28she's the one that influences Macbeth to
3:30commit evil deeds such as killing King
3:33Duncan. The second quotation to remember
3:35when it comes to Lady Macbeth's
3:37character is how she is very
3:41powerful and very well versed in
3:44deception. She is [music] a master or
3:47maybe a mistress of deception. She knows
3:51how to use her femininity as a way to
3:53create sympathy for people to think,
3:55"Oh, okay. She definitely can't do
3:57that." But then obviously she uses this
3:58femininity to misguide and mislead
4:00people. She also tells Macbeth to use
4:03his outward appearance to look like he's
4:04an innocent person, but use that to
4:06misguide other people because she tells
4:08him, "Look like the innocent flower, but
4:11be the serpent under it."
4:13In terms of technique, you want to see
4:14the juxtaposition of flower, which is
4:16supposed to be fragile. She talks about
4:18flower. When you think about the word
4:20flower, it has to femininity, it ties to
4:22womanhood, right? So she's basically
4:24saying, "Look like maybe you're fragile.
4:26Look like you're also very loyal, but
4:28use that to be a serpent, to be a snake,
4:31to be a hidden threat, and you strike
4:34the person that targets when and they'll
4:37only realize that you're striking when
4:38it's too late." So Lady Macbeth advises
4:41Macbeth to [music] use deception and to
4:44use deception as his craft in order to
4:46get even more powerful. So of course, we
4:49can see here Lady Macbeth is quite cruel
4:51and evil person. Now, when it comes to
4:54themes,
4:55this quotation is really powerful as it
4:56ties into the theme of reality and
4:59appearances. In other words, remember
5:01that within the play,
5:03what Shakespeare's trying to also
5:04illustrate to his audience is that you
5:06cannot believe everything at face value,
5:08okay? For example, King Duncan
5:11believed everyone at face value. Hence,
5:13he was betrayed by the first Thane of
5:15Cawdor who started a war against him,
5:17but also he was betrayed by the second
5:18Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth, who ended up
5:20killing him. However, when you trust
5:23people just based on the surface, based
5:25on how they appear, the reality can be
5:28very different. And in actually the
5:29people and the characters within the
5:31play that survive are those that don't
5:32trust appearances as they are because
5:35the reality will be different. And Lady
5:37Macbeth manipulates this. She uses her
5:39appearance as a woman to create this
5:42idea that she's very fragile.
5:44However, in reality she's quite cunning,
5:45she's quite cruel, she's quite evil.
5:47Also, what you can tie it to in terms of
5:49context is she obviously uses her
5:52femininity and her fragility in order to
5:55influence Macbeth to violate the divine
5:58right of kings by killing King Duncan in
6:00order to become powerful. And of course
6:01for her, what she stands to gain is to
6:03be a queen. Now, the third quotation
6:06which you want to consider when writing
6:08about Macbeth and obviously how to
6:09analyze it is when Lady Macbeth Macbeth
6:13puts up of his final defenses. Says, "I
6:15can't do this. I can't kill the king."
6:17And she is able to manipulate him by
6:20questioning his masculinity. His She
6:22says, "I don't see you as a man unless
6:24you kill the king the king. And when you
6:26dust do it, then you were a man." And
6:28this is taken from Act 1, Scene 5. We
6:31can see here that Lady Macbeth is
6:33amazing at manipulating Macbeth at using
6:36his masculinity against him because he
6:37then, desperate to prove his
6:39masculinity, agrees to kill the king so
6:41that he can show that he's really man
6:42enough. Now, of course, here the
6:45alliteration "dust and do it" it shows
6:47just how forceful and how powerful she
6:49is as she's talking to Macbeth. She's
6:50the one that has control of the
6:51relationship, not the other way around.
6:53She's the one that tells him what to do
6:54and she's the one that calls the shots.
6:56Now, in terms of themes, the main theme
6:59to tie it to is the theme of ambition
7:02because what this is illustrating is
7:04Lady Macbeth sees ambition as something
7:07that is a a sign of power and strength.
7:10And she sees Macbeth lacking in enough
7:13ambition to kill the king as being a
7:15weak man. But equally, the flip side of
7:17it is that we can see here Lady
7:19Macbeth's ambition to be powerful is
7:20obviously corrupted her completely.
7:22She'll do anything. In including using
7:25her own husband to become queen. Now,
7:28the context
7:30uh which is really interesting because
7:32we can see that there's a clear power
7:34imbalance between Macbeth and Lady
7:35Macbeth. She calls the shots. And this
7:37[snorts] illustrates
7:39contextually how the marriage was not
7:41conventional. The marriage was not a
7:42regular marriage. Usually Jacobean
7:45marriages and Jacobean relationships had
7:47men and husbands, basically they were
7:50the ones who were the most powerful and
7:51the wives meekly and quietly listened to
7:53them and waited at home to be told what
7:55to do. However, Lady Macbeth has flipped
7:58these roles and there's a gender
7:59reversal. It's Lady Macbeth who's on
8:01top. Lady Macbeth is the one that's
8:02telling Macbeth what to do and Jacobeans
8:05saw this as really unnatural. Now, the
8:07fourth quotation which you want to
8:09remember when it comes to Lady Macbeth's
8:11character
8:12is how she responds when she learns of
8:15King Duncan's death and when she sees
8:16Macbeth coming back with blood on his
8:18hands. Macbeth is horrified. He can't
8:20believe this. He said, "Neptune's oceans
8:21can't even wash this blood from my
8:23hands." And Lady Macbeth mocks him.
8:25She's embarrassed and disgusted that
8:27he's so horrified at this and she tells
8:29him, "The sleeping and the dead are but
8:32as pictures. 'Tis the eye of childhood
8:34that fears a painted devil." In other
8:35words, what she's saying is, "Oh, come
8:37off it. So silly that you're so scared
8:39of just a little bit of blood of the
8:40king. children that a dead bodies look
8:43just like pictures and it's only
8:45children that are scared of dead
8:46bodies." She's mocking him. She's
8:48basically saying because at this stage
8:49when he comes back he still has the
8:50daggers in his hands. He refuses to put
8:52the daggers back on King Duncan.
8:54However, Lady Macbeth says, "Well,
8:56what a shame that you can't even look at
8:57his dead body. He just looks like a
8:58picture. It's nothing, okay?" Here, of
9:01course, we can still see that Lady
9:02Macbeth is she does this role reversal
9:05once more, right? Typically speaking,
9:07because because Macbeth is the one who
9:09has fought at war, he should technically
9:11be somebody who doesn't really care
9:12about seeing blood. But actually it's
9:13Lady Macbeth that cares that doesn't
9:15care about seeing blood and he cares
9:16about seeing the King Duncan's blood and
9:18his dead body.
9:20[snorts]
9:20We can see that there's a reversal in
9:22their relationship and of course the use
9:24of assonance here of E coupled with the
9:28metaphors, this notion that dead bodies
9:30are just pictures and, you know, you
9:32know, seeing a picture of a dead body is
9:35just kind of like seeing like a scary
9:36painted devil on a frame, [music]
9:39right? So, kids seeing a picture of a
9:40devil, getting really scared. That's the
9:42same if you actually saw a dead body.
9:44What [snorts] the assonance and
9:45metaphors do here is illustrate how Lady
9:48Macbeth is she completely lacks in
9:50humanity. She doesn't care that much for
9:53dead bodies and dead people. It's really
9:55nothing to her, okay?
9:57Now, the
9:59key theme that you want to tie this to
10:02is the theme of ambition. This is
10:04because we see here Lady Macbeth has
10:07been robbed of her feeling of humanity
10:09[music]
10:10because she is so ambitious. She will do
10:13anything, absolutely anything. If it
10:15means killing the king, if it means, you
10:16know, framing the killings on other
10:18people, other innocent people, if that's
10:20what it takes, she's happy to do that in
10:22order to fulfill her ambition of being
10:24queen and of course having a husband as
10:26king. So, we can see here how ambition
10:28totally corrupt has corrupted her. Now,
10:31in terms of context,
10:33what you want to tie it context you to
10:35is, of course, King James the first of
10:38England and the sixth of Scotland found
10:40women like Lady Macbeth really scary. He
10:42saw them as kind of being somewhat
10:45possessed, somewhat devilish, right? And
10:47actually, what this illustrates is it
10:49ties into how women like her were
10:51witches.
10:53That's what to tie in terms of context.
10:55Let's talk about the fifth and final
10:56quotation related to Lady Macbeth. Of
10:58course, this quotation is the infamous
11:01out damn spot quotation where she
11:02suddenly goes from being really evil,
11:04really cruel, really conniving, quite
11:06terrible, and suddenly by act five, she
11:09has completely changed. She's quite
11:10penitent. She can't believe what she's
11:11done. The guilt of all her actions has
11:13come back. And also, she now starts
11:14seeing hallucinations of spots of blood
11:16on her hands, which leads her to
11:17suicide. She says, "Out, damn spot. Out,
11:19I say." This is taken from act one,
11:21scene five.
11:23And here, her use of repetition of out,
11:25coupled with this in this exclamatory
11:26sentence, shows just how frantic she is.
11:29She is so overwhelmed by the guilt.
11:31Suddenly, it dawns on her all the
11:33terrible things that she's done and all
11:34the terrible things she's influenced
11:35Macbeth to commit in order to become
11:37king, and she realizes it doesn't really
11:39matter. This is This is such a terrible
11:41thing that we've done, and she cannot
11:43live with herself. She sees these spots
11:44of blood, which represent her
11:46hallucinating, and it represents her
11:48feelings of intense guilt. And also, she
11:50realizes because she's violated divine
11:52right of kings, God is also angry at
11:54her, and God will never forgive her.
11:57Now, in terms of the themes to tie this
12:01to, of course, the first theme is the
12:03supernatural. What she's illustrating is
12:05relying on the supernatural, i.e.,
12:07"Unsex me here, you spirits," will still
12:10lead to your ruin and your downfall,
12:11okay? So, here we can see that she's now
12:13a ruined woman, and she's probably going
12:15to go to hell. So, of course, this is
12:16illustrating how terrible it is to
12:19support the or to even rely on the
12:21supernatural because they will lead to
12:23your downfall. Equally, of course, this
12:25ties into the theme of guilt because we
12:26can see that Lady Macbeth is seeing
12:29hallucinations, and hallucinations
12:31reveal, and when characters see
12:32hallucinations in the play, they see
12:34them because they feel really guilty.
12:35Here, Lady Macbeth is incredibly
12:37overwhelmed by her guilt. She has
12:38completely changed. She's done a 360.
12:41She has reversed roles. Macbeth at the
12:43beginning was guilty, then he became
12:44really corrupt. Lady Macbeth at the
12:46beginning was corrupt, then he she
12:47became guilty. And here, of course, the
12:50this theme illustrates her intense guilt
12:52at all the murders she has influenced,
12:54and of course, also her intense guilt at
12:56having
12:57influenced her husband to commit
12:59regicide, killing the king. Now, in
13:01terms of context, what you can say is
13:04that her hallucinations and her going
13:06crazy, sleepwalking, and eventually
13:07killing herself, this is God's
13:09punishment for all her terrible sins.
13:12Remember that God is angry because she
13:14violated divine right of kings.
13:15Therefore, he is now punishing her, and
13:17of course, when she dies, she is going
13:19to go to hell.
13:21So, that's really it when it comes to
13:22how to remember key quotations. And
13:25these are the five quotations I would
13:26argue are the most important quotes for
13:28Lady Macbeth's character and of course
13:30what you can consider when you're
13:31considering tying these quotations to
13:34language and structure as well as theme
13:36and context, okay? So there you have it
13:39and thank you so much for listening.
13:42[music]

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