Macbeth Annotation

Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two. Why, then, ’tis time to do ‘t. Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him. Here Lady Macbeth is trying to remove an imaginary blood spot from her hands. Shakespeare deliberately uses punctuation such as exclamation points to emphasise Lady Macbeth’s urgency at trying to wash herself over her blood. Shakespeare also refers to HELL to use religious imagery. A rhetorical question is also used here. Lady Macbeth also refers to the blood of Duncan, which is a recurring motif in the play.
LADY MACBETHThe thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?—What, will these hands ne’er be clean?—No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that. You mar all with this starting. When Lady Macbeth says ‘The thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?’ she is using a rhetorical question. Repetition is used to show that Lady Macbeth is mumbling, repeating herself and not making sense.
LADY MACBETHHere’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, Oh, Oh! Blood imagery – the blood symbolises death and guilt. Olfactory imagery – the perfumes to emphasise the stench of death. Repetition is used here again.
LADY MACBETHWash your hands. Put on your nightgown. Look not so pale.—I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on ‘s grave. Instructional language – Lady Macbeth is again talking to herself, but imagining she is speaking with Macbeth. Alliteration = Banquo’s buried.
LADY MACBETHTo bed, to bed. There’s knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come. Give me your hand. What’s done cannot be undone.—To bed, to bed, to bed! Repetition – “to bed to bed”Religious Imagery – the knocking at the gate. Earlier in the play, Macbeth refers to the bells ringing when he is about to kill Macbeth.
August 17, 2019