LADY MACBETH
Was the hope drunk Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since? And wakes it now, to look so green and pale At what it did so freely? From this time Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valour As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,' Like the poor cat i' the adage? |
Using rhetorical questions and analogies of softness Lady Macbeth attacks Mabeth's masculinity, trying to convince him to go through with the murder by challenging his strength and courage. This is a rather prophetic point made by Lady Macbeth; Macbeth, although physically strong and well-equipped for battle, is weak of character and unable to deal with psychological pain and trauma, as is displayed later in the play. She claims that from this point she will think of his love in the same way he treats courage, using the classic reminder of their marriage and his need for her love against him.
She 'pours her spirits in his ear' by using his own desire for the crown and what he feels is the 'ornament of life' by twisting his words to convince him that he is willing to kill to acquire it. In truth, although he had probably been contemplating the idea, he had not expressed to her that he would be willing to commit murder. She, knowing her husband well, uses his ambition to make him believe that he had already agreed to it. She ends by comparing him to the 'poor cat i' the adage', a reference to the children's story where a cat wants to eat a fish from the bowl but does not want to get his paws wet. |