Macbeth ACT V

How has Lady Macbeth’s character changed from Act I when she reappears in Act V, Sc 1? Quote the lines she says which are opposite to what she said in Act I Lady Macbeth, who once naively thought she could just wash her hands and forget Duncan's murder, is now sleepwalking and so full of guilt that she imagines her hands are always covered in blood.

In scene three, what does Macbeth ask the doctor in regards to his wife? Macbeth instructs the doctor to cure his wife of this affliction, but the doctor insists that "the patient must minister to himself." The doctor has no medicine for a mental illness, which is Lady Macbeth's problem. Macbeth seems out of touch with reality.

Look at Macbeth’s “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…” soliloquy. What has Macbeth realized about ambition? Macbeth’s ambition caused him to commit terrible crimes. His crimes allowed him to become so numb that he can’t even react when his wife dies. All he can do is comment on how meaningless life is.

Contrast Macbeth’s reaction to his wife’s death with Macduff’s reaction to his family’s death. Macduff's reaction is more human; he is devastated. Also, his loss also included his children, meaning his blood line has been destroyed too. Macbeth's cold reaction is as a result of him being in shock as events spiral to conspire against him.

Out, damned spot; out, I say… Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? Lady Macbeth speaks this line, sleepwalking She is completely undone by guilt and descends into madness. Her inability to sleep was foreshadowed in the voice that her husband thought he heard while killing the king—a voice crying out that Macbeth was murdering sleep. And her delusion that there is a bloodstain on her hand furthers the play’s use of blood as a symbol of guilt.

I am sick at heart, When I behold Seyton, I say! … Macbeth shouts for his servant Seyton to bring his armor, then muses how sick at heart he feels, how withered his life has become. Macbeth is fearless because of the prophecies, but he seems to wish he weren't. He knows his life is awful, but he's so gripped by ambition that he can’t turn back.

Let every soldier hew him down a bough. And bear ’t before him. Thereby shall we shadow. The numbers of our host and make discovery. Err in report of us. Malcolm gives orders that to hide the size of their army, all soldiers should cut a branch from a tree and hold it upright as they march. The first block in Macbeth's fate falls into place: Birnam Wood will march on Dunsinane.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day… Macbeth has become so numb that he barely reacts to the news of Lady Macbeth’s death. He simply comments on how meaningless life is. Macbeth now believes his efforts to become king have been in vain. Life, as far as he's concerned, has no real lasting meaning.

I bear a charmèd life, which must not yield To one of woman born. As Macbeth and Macduff fight, Macbeth mocks Macduff, saying his effort is wasted: no one of woman born can beat him. Macbeth has interpreted the second apparition (None of woman born shall harm Macbeth) as “Nobody can kill me”, but again the withes' tricky language has fooled him.

Despair thy charm, And let the angel whom thou still hast served. Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb. Untimely ripped. After Macbeth mocked Macduff, Macduff replies that he was "untimely ripped" from his mother's womb.” This means Macduff is not “of woman born” and can therefore kill Macbeth.

Accursèd be that tongue that tells me so, For it hath cowed my better part of man! Macbeth has realized his fatal flaw – ambition and arrogance Macbeth dies as he lived—a slave to ambition. Lady Macbeth convinced him to sacrifice his honor by questioning his courage, now Macduff gets Macbeth to fight for a lost cause to prove his courage.