Who Is Lady Macbeth's Soliloquy

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Lady Macbeth says these phrases in Act 1, scene iv, lines 36-35 as a soliloquy while she awaits the arrival of King Duncan which conveys her static characterization and theme development to the story. Her soliloquy is an important part in her characterization because it is an open window into the mind and soul of the character, and this is where we see Lady Macbeth’s deepest psychological yearnings. It truly displays Lady Macbeth’s ugly self, her obsession for power and ambition that she will stop at nothing. Hence this literary device effectively helps portray how Lady Macbeth is behind closed doors. By this soliloquy we can see Lady Macbeth allowing her ambitious drive to get the best of her. We see that instead of her being practical and considering dissuading Macbeth from doing anything immoral for the mere sake of gaining power…show more content…
This speech is useful in portraying Lady Macbeth’s character as someone with excessive ambition. As well the language of this speech touches on the theme of masculinity: “unsex me here/…/… Come to my woman’s breasts, / and take my milk for gall,” Lady Macbeth prepares herself to commit murder. The language suggests that her womanhood, represented by milk and breasts which usually come to be symbols of motherhood, and nurturing, impedes her from acting violently and cruel, which she associates with manliness. In Shakespeare's time, as now, women were thought to be naturally more kind and gentle than men. But, Lady Macbeth, who is thinking deadly ("mortal") thoughts, calls

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