Home → Plays → Macbeth → Act 1 Scene 5 → Scene Analysis
Macbeth: Act 1, Scene 5 – analysis
Lady Macbeth receives news of the prophecy and summons dark spirits to give her the ruthlessness needed to murder the King.
Scene Profile – At a Glance
Location: Inverness. Macbeth's castle.
Characters: Lady Macbeth, A Messenger, Macbeth.
Key Event: Lady Macbeth decides Duncan must die tonight and takes immediate control of the murder plot.
The Atmosphere: Dark, claustrophobic, intense, and supernatural.
Key Quote: "Look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under 't."
Significance: Introduces Lady Macbeth as the driving force behind the tragedy, subverting traditional gender roles and committing herself entirely to evil.
Scene Summary
Lady Macbeth reads a letter from her husband detailing his encounter with the Witches and their prophecy of kingship. She immediately resolves that he must be King, but worries that his nature is "too full o' the milk of human kindness" to commit the necessary murder. A messenger arrives with the shocking news that King Duncan is coming to stay at their castle that very night. Recognising this as the perfect opportunity, Lady Macbeth delivers a chilling soliloquy, calling upon demonic spirits to "unsex" her, strip away her feminine compassion, and fill her with "direst cruelty." When Macbeth arrives, she greets him with prophetic titles. He states Duncan will leave tomorrow, to which she replies, "O, never / Shall sun that morrow see!" She instructs him to hide his dark intentions behind a welcoming face and promises to take charge of the night's "great business."
Context
Gender Roles: In the patriarchal society of 11th-century Scotland (and Jacobean England), women were expected to be subservient, gentle, and nurturing. Lady Macbeth deliberately rejects these traits, equating femininity with weakness and masculinity with murderous violence.
Demonic Invocation: Her call to "murderous ministers" is effectively a spell. She is aligning herself with the Witches, acting as a human counterpart to their supernatural evil. By inviting demonic possession, she is actively damning her own soul.
The Laws of Hospitality: In medieval society, the host was bound by sacred duty to protect their guest. Plotting to kill the King under her own roof is not just treason; it is a profound violation of the holy laws of hospitality.
Character Focus
Lady Macbeth: The Driving Force
Unlike Macbeth, who wrestles with his conscience, Lady Macbeth shows zero hesitation. She is purely pragmatic and ruthlessly ambitious. She recognises her husband's moral compass as an obstacle and resolves to "pour my spirits in thine ear" to manipulate him. She takes immediate control of the situation, dominating Macbeth upon his arrival and overriding his passive stance. She is the catalyst that will turn his ambition into physical action.
Language & Technique
Metaphor (Milk): She uses "milk" to represent human compassion ("milk of human kindness") and maternal nurturing ("take my milk for gall"). By rejecting milk in favour of gall (bitter poison), she violently rejects her biological and social roles as a woman and mother to become a vessel of death.
Personification / Apostrophe: She speaks directly to abstract concepts and absent forces—spirits, thick night, the smoke of hell. This creates a powerful, ritualistic tone, echoing the chanting of the Witches.
Simile & Metaphor (Serpent/Flower): "Look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under 't." This encapsulates the theme of appearance versus reality. The biblical allusion to the serpent in the Garden of Eden casts Lady Macbeth in the role of the tempter, urging Macbeth to commit original sin.
Key Quotes
Original:
…yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it. (Lady Macbeth)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse):
…although I fear it's not your nature;
You are too full of kindness in your heart
To snatch your first chance. You do strive for greatness,
And you have high ambition, but without
The ruthlessness that's needed.
Analysis: Lady Macbeth diagnoses her husband's flaw: he has ambition, but lacks the "illness" (ruthlessness/evil) required to act on it. The "nearest way" is murder. She views his "human kindness" not as a virtue, but as a crippling weakness that she must cure.
Original:
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! (Lady Macbeth)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse):
Come, evil spirits
That make me think of death, make me more manly,
And fill me from my head down to my toes
With awful cruelty!
Analysis: One of the most terrifying soliloquies in literature. She asks demonic spirits to strip her of her biological sex ("unsex me"), believing that feminine traits like pity and remorse will prevent her from committing murder. She wants to be filled entirely with pure, masculine cruelty.
Original:
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!' (Lady Macbeth)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse):
Come dark night
And wrap up in the thickest smoke of hell
So that my knife won't see the wounds it makes,
Nor heaven can observe me through the darkness
And shout, 'Stop that!'
Analysis: Like Macbeth in the previous scene ("Stars, hide your fires"), she invokes absolute darkness. She wants the "smoke of hell" to blind her own knife, her conscience, and heaven itself. It shows she knows the act is utterly wicked and fears divine intervention.
Original:
Look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under 't. (Lady Macbeth)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse):
Look like a flower,
But be the snake below.
Analysis: Lady Macbeth instructs her husband on the art of deception. She tells him to weaponise hospitality—using a welcoming, beautiful exterior to hide a deadly, treacherous interior. It perfectly summarises the "fair is foul" theme of the play.
Study Prompts (with suggested answers)
-
Benchmark Points:
"My dearest partner of greatness."
Equality and shared ambition.
Trust and intimacy.
Suggested Answer: Macbeth addresses her as his "dearest partner of greatness." Unlike typical patriarchal marriages of the era where the wife was subservient, Macbeth views his wife as an equal. He writes to her immediately so she will not "lose the dues of rejoicing," demonstrating deep trust, intimacy, and a shared lust for power.
-
Benchmark Points:
"Milk of human kindness."
He is too moral to cheat.
He wants the prize without doing the dirty work.
Suggested Answer: She fears he is too compassionate ("full o' the milk of human kindness") to murder the King. She notes that while he is ambitious, he lacks the necessary "illness" (ruthlessness) to seize the crown. He wants to win the throne "holily" and refuses to "play false," meaning she will have to manipulate him to commit the deed.
-
Benchmark Points:
Rejection of female stereotypes (gentleness, nurturing).
Embracing masculine violence.
Summoning demonic forces.
Suggested Answer: In Jacobean society, women were expected to be gentle, nurturing, and physically weak. By commanding spirits to "unsex" her, Lady Macbeth is asking to be stripped of these feminine qualities. She equates womanhood with compassionate weakness and manhood with violent capability, wishing to become an unnatural, ruthless entity capable of orchestrating regicide.
-
Benchmark Points:
"Thick night" and "smoke of hell."
Hiding the deed from heaven.
Blinding her own conscience.
Suggested Answer: She calls for "thick night" and the "dunnest smoke of hell" to blanket the castle. She uses darkness to hide the murder not just from other people, but from heaven (so God cannot see and stop her) and from herself ("that my keen knife see not the wound it makes"). It shows she requires total moral blindness to go through with the plot.
Duncan as a nurturing gardener.
The natural order of the kingdom.
Contrast with Macbeth's unnatural desires.
Suggested Answer: Duncan tells Macbeth, "I have begun to plant thee," using agricultural imagery to show that a good king nurtures his subjects to help them thrive. This aligns the King with the healthy, natural order of life. Macbeth's plot to kill Duncan is therefore not just a political crime, but a crime against nature that will bring disease and barrenness to Scotland.
-
Benchmark Points:
Appearance versus reality.
Weaponised hospitality.
Biblical allusion to Eden.
Suggested Answer: Lady Macbeth tells her husband to "Look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under 't." This means he must present a false, welcoming exterior to King Duncan while hiding his deadly intentions beneath. It is a classic example of appearance vs. reality, and the serpent imagery links their plot to the Devil's temptation in the Garden of Eden.