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-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, you 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!' 1. What does a raven symbolise?
2. What is Lady Macbeth saying will happen to Duncan once he arrives at the castle?
3. What is Lady Macbeth calling upon and how would a Shakespearean audience react to this?
4. What is Lady Macbeth asking for and why is it necessary to do so? Consider the historical context.
5. Why does Lady Macbeth want to be filled with cruelty? How does this go against the conventions of the stereotypical role of women?
6. What is ‘remorse’? Why is Lady Macbeth asking for this to be stopped?
7. What are the connotations of ‘milk’? Why does Lady Macbeth ask for her milk to turn bitter?
8. Lady Macbeth is asking for darkness here so that no one can see her evil deeds. How is this similar to Macbeth in Act 1, scene 4?
9. Why is it important that heaven cannot ‘peep through the blanket of the dark’? How is religious imagery used here?