Lady Macbeth Act 1 Scene 5 Essay

After reading and analysing the passage of Act 1, Scene 5 in William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, I think that Lady Macbeth’s desires of overtaking the power with her cruelty actions and her evil characteristics will drive the themes of good and evil, darkness and denial throughout this play and gradually lead to her death. Firstly, when she is directing the cruel actions to kill the current king, Duncan, her use of words in this section demonstrates her evil and cruel personality in which many dark themes are transferred to the audience. When Duncan enters the entrance, she is planning the murder of Duncan and says “ Come, thick night/ And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,/ That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,/ Nor heaven peep through the

Also, this section of the passage expresses the theme of good and evil, as if “hell” and “heaven” combined in the mortal world. She uses juxtaposition to compare “hell” and “heaven”, through the indication of “hell”, it displays that this play would be full of darkness as well as deaths. By saying the word “heaven” means Lady Macbeth does not want the good characters to interrupt their plan to kill the current king and stop them from overtaking his power. Secondly, she denies the cruel actions led by her ambition. When she guides Macbeth on the conflicts that they will face after the murder as she says, “Your face, my thane, is as a book where men/ May read strange matters. To beguile the time,/ Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,/ Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,/But be the serpent under it” (1.5.68-72). In this quotation, Lady Macbeth is instructing Macbeth to be a evil “serpent” but act like an “innocent flower” to the others although the others may “read strange matters” from their