Macbeth Femininity and Masculinity Quotes

the milk of human kindness - lady macbeth

Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5. Lady Macbeth fears that her husband is too compassionate to be able to murder Duncan to make the Witches’ prophecy that he will be king come true. A metaphor likens human kindness to “milk,” conjuring up a feminine image that is maternal and nurturing. Lady Macbeth’s words are ironic, since it suggests that Lady Macbeth is a lot less full of that milk than her husband. The passage also suggests that Macbeth is not totally evil at this point.

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; make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5. This soliloquy spoken by Lady Macbeth after reading her husband’s letter is one of the most famous quotes in the play. The passage is an elaborate extended metaphor. Lady Macbeth appeals to the evil spirits from hell to fill her with cruelty and to metaphorically thicken her blood. She wants to block the flow of natural feelings of conscience and remorse, so that she can carry out the unthinkable deed of murdering the king. Calling on the spirits to strip her of her femininity and compassion, she desires to be transformed into the stereotypical ruthless male. Her ambition for power has set her on a course for evil.
take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers - lady macbeth

Come to my woman’s breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5. Lady Macbeth’s words touch on the theme of femininity and masculinity. She pleads with the evil spirits to take away her nurturing nature. She believes that womanhood hampers her from acts of violence and cruelty. Attempting to summon up the courage to kill King Duncan, she begs the spirits to metaphorically turn the milk inside her breasts into something poisonous. She wants nothing to stand in the way of her husband being king.

LADY MACBETH: He that’s coming
Must be provided for: and you shall put
This night’s great business into my dispatch;
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
MACBETH: We will speak further.
LADY MACBETH: Only look up clear;
To alter favour ever is to fear:
Leave all the rest to me.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5. In this scene Lady Macbeth is presented as the main villain of the play. When she tells her husband that King Duncan must be “provided for,” she is not talking about the hospitality they intend to lavish on their guest. Instead she has something more sinister in mind. She uses the euphemism “this night’s great business” to refer to the unspeakable act of the assassination of the King. When Macbeth appears to hesitate – “We will speak further” – his wife shuts this down quickly. She has the last word, instructing him to stay calm, not to show any fear, and leave all the rest to her. She effectively emasculates him in this scene. It is clear that Lady Macbeth holds the power and wears the pants in this relationship.

I have given suck, and know
How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7. Lady Macbeth is the complete antithesis of what most people’s image of a woman and mother is. She describes herself as having been a loving and nurturing mother in the past. But she shockingly admits she would kill her own suckling baby before abandoning the plan to seize power and take the Scottish throne. Consumed with uncontrolled ambition, she is prepared to use every means to pressurize and shame Macbeth into killing Duncan. Lady Macbeth’s extreme words paint a picture of a woman with a very disturbed mind, foreshadowing her later descent into complete madness.

Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures: ’tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal;
For it must seem their guilt.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2. Lady Macbeth expresses disgust at Macbeth’s cowardice for failing to finish the job after murdering Duncan. She grabs the daggers used in the killing to place them with the sleeping guards, in order to frame them for the crime, a task she expected her husband to carry out. In a simile she compares the dead and sleeping to pictures. She accuses Macbeth of behaving like a child. Using a metaphor she says that she will gild the grooms’ faces with blood, so that they will appear guilty of the murder. While Macbeth’s conscience is troubled over the terrible thing that they have done, his wife’s is certainly not. Lady Macbeth is very dominating and manipulative in this scene, and basically wearing the pants in the marriage.

All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 1. This is spoken by a sleepwalking Lady Macbeth as she imagines her hands stained with the blood of her and Macbeth’s innocent victims. She believes that her hand is forever fouled by the stench of murder, which no amount of perfumes can erase. Her words reflect an unredeemable guilt, so great that she hallucinates and shows signs of complete mental breakdown. Despite Lady Macbeth’s earlier call to “unsex me” as she plotted the murder of Duncan, we are reminded that she is still a woman. This passage with its reference to perfumes reflects that and displays her femininity. Full of guilt and paranoia, she presents a very isolated figure here.
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