In Act one scene five, Lady Macbeth is positively provoked at the thought of her husband becoming King and she, herself, becoming. Lady Macbeth tells her husband to ‘look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t’. Shakespearean audiences would have been recognised this quote as a reference to ‘Genesis’. In the third chapter of Genesis there are lines which say ‘now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made’. This cross referencing between the bible and Lady Macbeths lines assists our understanding of her character as it shows us the extent which she is prepared to embrace evil just as she later calls on the spirits directly to fill her with evil. Nonetheless, in the Bible it is said that the serpent caused Adam and Eve to commit the first original sin, so according to Lady Macbeth killing Duncan in a malicious, heartless act of regicide is an evil act compatible to the world’s first ever act of evil. …show more content…
The quote ‘thou wouldst be great, art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it ' demonstrates how Lady Macbeth takes advantage over her husband 's lack of courage and ambition to manipulate him into thinking that his not man enough and has to prove himself as a man to her. This is significant as Macbeth was known by the whole kingdom to being a brave and courageous soldier but clearly Lady Macbeth didn 't notice that in her husband; so out of helplessness, Macbeth was provoked into proving himself to her, thus murdering King Duncan. In addition, Lady Macbeth has a list of different qualities which women in 16th Century weren 't supposed to have, which tested the stereotypical Tudor woman. This quote from Lady Macbeth could also be a indication of her reassuring herself that and telling herself that even though she’s a woman and society is stopping her from choosing her own destiny she can still do anything she desires if she’s confident enough and has the ambition and will power