After making her first short speech, lady Macbeth was informed by the servant of the impending arrival of King Duncan, who had decided to spend a day at the house of Macbeth due to his bravery and patriotism. Upon hearing this and dismissing the servant, Lady Macbeth states “The Raven himself is hoarse”. With the dark mood already present from her previous speech, the connotations of the Raven, them being along the lines of darkness, death, cruelty and impurity, only goes to amplify the dark environment present. Building on this, she states “That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan”. Her choice of words to describe the message delivered is certainly unique, and doesn’t at all identify with the expected response from a woman from that era. Lady Macbeth describes his entrance as fatal, possibly foreshadowing his death later on in the play which we know is impending.

Moving aside from the play for a second, let’s take a look at her character again. She’s the complete antithesis of the stereotypical view of a Jacobean women, or at least intentionally portrayed as such.
Jacobean women were expected to be kind, nurturing, loving to their husbands and their purpose in life was to mainly create and mother a baby, or babies of their husbands, so when a women like Lady Macbeth with a husband of such high status and a reputation so well regarded shows herself as such, it’s truly shocking to the audience watching the play and automatically creates a negative image of her in their heads. This is what I believe to be Shakespeare’s intended effect. Now, to understand why this effect was chosen for this play, we need to look into the entire ideology of the play, why it was made, who it was made for, what did it try to show, and more. All things considered, this play was most likely made for to purposes, them being to one, appease the king (as that’s one of the most significant targets of Shakespeare’s play, due to the fact he was heavily funded by the royal family at the time), and two, to convey a moral to the people of the era which closely links to the first one as one can infer the moral to be to never oppose or act against the king. Shakespeare could not logically make a play about the act of regicide by two honorable people and end it with them getting away scott free, so him enabling a character such as Lady Macbeth, one so significant to act in such a way intrigues an audience nicely while simultaneously playing into the storyline and ending with her downfall. A bit further on in the play, it’s mentioned that Lady Macbeth was engulfed with the guilt of her actions, and could see her hands covered in blood. This paranoia eventually led to her committing suicide, her suicide also took a toll on Macbeth, and the play ends with him getting slain by the original heir to the thrown. As seen here, both the antagonists in this situation end up dead, and expectedly end up in hell. This is a satisfying wrap to the play as this provides the audience with a good show without upsetting the king, pleasing him instead.

Refocusing on the play once again, she is heard to say “Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe full of direst cruelty”. This line not only verifies the doubts of her not being like a normal Jacobean woman, but also embeds more suspicions in the head of the audience pertaining to possible witchery. Summoning evil spirits that tend on mortal thoughts is very dark, sinister, and at that time certainly result in a conviction of witchcraft. It’s also noticeable that she asks to be filled from “the crown to the toe full of direst cruelty”, and given the context, it’s reasonable to assume she’s asking for this in order for her to be able to commit the act of regicide easily with no remorse, guilt or regret. She describes the blood as “thick”, which connotes strong, bold and unmoving. Exactly the ideal attributes for a job as such.

She follows this by soon saying “Unsex me here”, which translates to her asking to be rid of her gender. Jacobean women were expected to be kind and pure of heart, and she wanted to be rid of these expectations, to be viewed as a force to be reckoned with, to have power, control, to have respect. Exactly the things a renowned man in that era would have. Our doubts of her wanting to be rid of her gender are then confirmed when she says “Come to my women’s breasts and take my milk for gall”. A women’s breast milk is one of the most prominent signs of her femininity as it’s considered to be the food of newborns, something given to them by their female mothers upon their birth for a couple of months, so her wanting to get rid of her breast milk would be viewed as a significant ask, amplified by the fact of her gender.

Another thing to note is her repetition of the word “Come”, which she then repeats again when she says “Come thick night and pall thee with the dunnest smoke of hell”. She’s repeatedly asking what seems like “spirits who tend on mortal thoughts” to what boils down to helping her commit the act of regicide. She asks for her gender to be voided, for her blood to be filled with cruelty, for her to not be affected by the guilt and moral weight of her actions and now, from this quote, for her actions to be hidden from heaven so the angels or god cannot stop her. This here is important because the Jacobean people were extremely religious and believed as previously mentioned in the Chain of Being and considered it the King’s divine right to stay in that position, and that any opposition against their king would be considered an act against god. Lady Macbeth too believes in this ideology and therefore is seen asking to be hidden under the covers of the thick smoke of hell, so her actions be hidden from heaven, angels, and ultimately god. Hell was one of the main contributors to the fear of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth alike, as they too like the rest believed in this religious hierarchy and they too knew doing or committing an act like such would most certainly reserve them a spot in hell. This is