Act 1, Scene 5

SCENE V. Inverness. Macbeth's castle.

 

LADY MACBETH

 

'They met me in the day of success: and I have

learned by the perfectest report, they have more in

them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire

to question them further, they made themselves air,

into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in

the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who

all-hailed me 'Thane of Cawdor;' by which title,

before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred

me to the coming on of time, with 'Hail, king that

shalt be!' This have I thought good to deliver

thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou

mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being

ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it

to thy heart, and farewell.'

 

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be

What thou art promised: 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: what thou wouldst highly,

That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,

 

And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou'ldst have, great Glamis,

That which cries 'Thus thou must do, if thou have it;

And that which rather thou dost fear to do

Than wishest should be undone.' Hie thee hither,

That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;

And chastise with the valour of my tongue

All that impedes thee from the golden round,

Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem

To have thee crown'd withal.

 

 

 

 

Steps made to analyse this extract:

 

- Where is it contained?

This letter is contained in the fifth scene of William Shakespeare’s tragedy: Macbeth.

 

- What is this extract about?

It is the letter Lord Macbeth wrote to his wife, Lady Macbeth, about something that happened him.

 

- How many parts is it composed of?

It could be divided in three parts, the first one that there’s the letter of Lord Macbeth; the second part containing the reflections of Lady Macbeth about her husband’s nature and the last part which is a took of position by Lady Macbeth and her decision to help her husband becoming King.

 

-Analyse every part of the extract (starting from the content and then talking about phonological, semantical and rhetorical level).

 

Part one:

The letter contains the details of a strange fact happened to Lord Macbeth.

He met three witches who predicted him glory and success as Thane of Cawdor and then King of Scotland.

Once the three witches left, the first prophecy become true. So he was really in doubt about how act to finally become King of Scotland.

You can understand they were witches by what they did (vanished in the air) and how he described them (more than mortal knowledge).

The way the letter is written reminds the reader a sort of kindness and humility.

While reading you can find Scottish words (this is common in Shakespeare’s

Works that drawn inspiration from all sorts of traditions and classicisms).

In the middle of the letter there’s an affirmative sentence written in an interrogative way. This wants to highlight what is the main reason of the letter: the desire of Macbeth to write his wife.

You can understand this by the inversion of THIS(the fact) and I (Macbeth).

 

Part two:

While Lady Macbeth talks about Macbeth you can perceive the weakness of the Lord by the use of lots of conditional forms and his desire to follow the right way.

There’s an interesting thing that Lady Macbeth said, which is a very important shadow of Lord Macbeth character: he is “full of human kindness”. It would make the reader aware of Macbeth’s innocence and naivety.

 

Part three:

In the last part you can find imperative forms that represents the took of position of Lady Macbeth.

There’s a strong imagine suggested in this part which gave the reader the opportunity to know about Lady Macbeth nature (all the spirits finally have the chance to go out and influence someone else to get a concrete objective).

It represents her big ambition and the frustration of not becoming anyone important (women in those times couldn’t reach any relevant position).

 

- Draw personal conclusion about the relation of this three parts and understand the main meaning why the letter was inserted in the tragedy.