Skip to main content

What stylistic devices are used in Lady Macbeth's soliloquy in Act I, Scene 5?

In this soliloquy in Act I, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth establishes herself as incredibly ambitious, immoral, and cunning. Let's see which stylistic devices in particular help convey her villainous character during this soliloquy.


1. Apostrophe.While apostrophes are, of course, those little marks of punctuation, apostrophe is also a literary device in which the speaker addresses someone or something who isn't actually there. Keep in mind that Lady Macbeth is alone during this speech. She's...

In this soliloquy in Act I, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth establishes herself as incredibly ambitious, immoral, and cunning. Let's see which stylistic devices in particular help convey her villainous character during this soliloquy.


1. Apostrophe. While apostrophes are, of course, those little marks of punctuation, apostrophe is also a literary device in which the speaker addresses someone or something who isn't actually there. Keep in mind that Lady Macbeth is alone during this speech. She's holding the letter from her husband, and talking aloud to herself. When Lady Macbeth directs her comments toward her husband, calling him "thee" and "thou," she's using apostrophe. This stylistic device adds drama to the scene and probably helps the actress project her voice better, and turn her face more toward the audience, than if she were simply muttering to herself.


2. Metaphor. By saying her husband has too much "milk of human kindness," Lady Macbeth uses a metaphor to criticize her husband's kind nature as babyish or womanly.


3. Parallelism and alliteration: "What thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily." With a repetitive, balanced sentence structure and a clever following of "highly" with "holily," Lady Macbeth is calling extra attention to the artfulness of the idea she's talking about here: that her husband really wants something, but he's too goody-goody to do what's necessary to get it.


4. Personification. By talking about the "valor" of her own tongue (the bravery of her words) and by saying that "fate and metaphysical aid" both want Macbeth to be crowned, Lady Macbeth is speaking in a firm, confident, forceful way, which shows us that she's not simply the masculine one in her marriage but also the more powerful one. 


Lady Macbeth's soliloquies are rich in stylistic devices like these, and I'm sure you can find more examples of them if you continue to examine the text closely. The four listed above strike me as the most effective ones in establishing Lady Macbeth's terrifying willingness to do anything necessary to grab power for herself and her husband.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is the meaning of "juggling fiends" in Macbeth?

Macbeth is beginning to realize that the three witches have been deceiving him since he first encountered them. Like jugglers, they have kept changing their forecasts in order create confusion. This is particularly apparent when the Second Apparition they raise in Act IV,   Scene 1 tells him that no man of woman born can overcome him in hand-to-hand battle--and then Macbeth finds himself confronted by the one man he has been avoiding out of a... Macbeth is beginning to realize that the three witches have been deceiving him since he first encountered them. Like jugglers, they have kept changing their forecasts in order create confusion. This is particularly apparent when the Second Apparition they raise in Act IV,   Scene 1 tells him that no man of woman born can overcome him in hand-to-hand battle--and then Macbeth finds himself confronted by the one man he has been avoiding out of a sense of guilt, and that man tells him: Despair thy charm. And let the angel whom thou still hast serve...
Post a Comment
Read more

What are some tensions between men and women in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar?

Julius Caesar is a largely male-driven play. Calpurnia and Portia are the two main female characters, and they are both wives of major characters. Calpurnia is Julius Caesar’s wife. She makes public appearances with him, but there may be some awkwardness between them because of her inability to have children. He publicly tells Antony to touch Calpurnia to cure her of barrenness when he runs the Lupercal, a “holy race” and fertility festival. Calpurnia has... Julius Caesar is a largely male-driven play. Calpurnia and Portia are the two main female characters, and they are both wives of major characters. Calpurnia is Julius Caesar’s wife. She makes public appearances with him, but there may be some awkwardness between them because of her inability to have children. He publicly tells Antony to touch Calpurnia to cure her of barrenness when he runs the Lupercal, a “holy race” and fertility festival. Calpurnia has nightmares about Caesar’s death. She claims that she is not naturally super...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is the probability that a cross between parents who are both homozygous recessive for trait will have offspring that are homozygous recessive...

In the question, both parents are homozygous recessive for a trait. Therefore, the only genes present in each parent's genotype would be two copies of the recessive gene.  If these parents decide to have offspring, 100% of their children will inherit two recessive alleles and will express the recessive trait. An example of this can be demonstrated with the sickle cell anemia allele. If both parents have sickle cell anemia, then all of their offspring... In the question, both parents are homozygous recessive for a trait. Therefore, the only genes present in each parent's genotype would be two copies of the recessive gene.  If these parents decide to have offspring, 100% of their children will inherit two recessive alleles and will express the recessive trait. An example of this can be demonstrated with the sickle cell anemia allele. If both parents have sickle cell anemia, then all of their offspring will have the disease phenotype. The disease phenotype of sickle cell anemia re...
Post a Comment
Read more