Question

In Macbeth act 1, scene 5, explain how various literary devices are used in this scene.

Accepted Answer

In Macbeth Act I, scene 5, Lady Macbeth greets her husband and receives his news that Duncan is on his way to their castle.
Lady Macbeth uses a strong combination of figurative language to capture her emotional response to her husband's news.  
Personification
Lady Macbeth uses personification in referring to "the raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan" (39-40).  Besides giving the raven given human qualities, Lady Macbeth also ascribes to him a prophetic voice; this type of bird was often thought to be a harbinger of doom.  She transfers her own feelings to the bird, such as her desire for Duncan's death.  
She employs personification again later in her speech with the wish that her "keen knife see not the wound it makes" (51).  Her thoughts are of murder. She gives human qualities to the murder weapon, but she is really speaking to herself in an attempt to stay her resolve to carry out the foul deed.
Metaphor
Lady Macbeth addresses her husband through the use of metaphor:

Your face, my Thane, is as a book where menMay read strange matters. (67-68)

As she greets her husband, she observes his expression, and compares the open honesty in his face to reading an open book.  Macbeth struggles to conceal his feelings.  Lady Macbeth feels she must correct this, especially with Duncan's impending arrival.  She suggests, using simile  that Macbeth "look like th'innocent flower, but be the serpent under't" (64-65).  Her comparison suggests that Macbeth conceal his true purpose, like the serpent (Biblical allusion), and have all the charm of the flower to his guest.

Answer

The literary devices that William Shakespeare uses in Macbeth act 1, scene 5, include metaphor, alliteration, and apostrophe. The combination of parallel structure and several types of repetition is also effectively deployed.
Metaphor is direct comparison of two apparently unlike things for effect. Lady Macbeth addresses her husband in absentia, describing his nature using a metaphor equating kindness with milk: "It is too full o' the milk of human kindness."
Alliteration, the repetition of initial consonant sounds, appears in numerous places: "you murdering ministers, / Wherever in your sightless substances."
When she summons up her courage and resolution to act boldly, she does so using by calling upon the spirits and to the night using apostrophe—direct address to a person, thing, or concept—"Come, you spirits/  That tend on mortal thoughts. . . . Come, thick night."
Parallel structure is the use of the same syntax or grammatical construction. Repetition of the same word, one type of which is anaphora (or a phrase: an epimone), is used here. These are combined in Lady Macbeth's exhortations to Macbeth about how to behave ("thou wouldst" or "thou wouldst not," "thou shouldst," and then contrasting "thou must" with the rhyming "thou dost"):

. . . thou wouldst be great;Art not without ambition, but withoutThe illness should attend it: what thou wouldst highly,That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou'ldst have, great Glamis,That which cries 'Thus thou must do, if thou have it;And that which rather thou dost fear to doThan wishest should be undone.

Answer

In this scene, Shakespeare uses a number of metaphors and similes. For example, Lady Macbeth says that she wants to "pour my spirits in thine ear," referring to her desire to fill her husband with evil thoughts, comparing them to spirits. Later, she says to Macbeth, "Your face, my thane, is as a book where men / May read strange matters." In this simile, she compares Macbeth's face to a book in which people can plainly read that he has strange thoughts. In other words, his face is far too open and can be read as easily as a book.
This scene also features personification. For example, Lady Macbeth says the following:

"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 blanket of the darkTo cry 'Hold, hold!'"

In this passage, Lady Macbeth implores night to come to cloak her in smoke so that her knife will not see the wound it causes and that the heavens will not tell her to stop her murderous deeds. Both night and the heavens are personified, or made human.
There are also many examples of alliteration in this scene. For example, Lady Macbeth says, "Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom." Alliteration involves the repetition of initial sounds of words and makes the scene sound more poetic.

Answer

lm may be presented as a merciless character, however this changes as the play progresses and while the murder of duncan is being planned she claims to say she couldn't kill Duncan herself as he reminded her of her father, this may indicate that she isn't as merciless as she appears

Macbeth

In Macbeth act 1, scene 5, explain how various literary devices are used in this scene.

Expert Answers

Unlock This Answer Now

Related Questions

Macbeth Act I scene 7 : Explain how various literary devices are used in this scene.

What literary devices are used in Macbeth, act 5, scene 1?

What literary devices are used in Macbeth's soliloquy in act 5, scene 5?

Explain how various literary devices are used in Act I, Scene 6 of Macbeth.

What are the literary devices used in Macbeth's soliloquy in act 3, scene 1 of Macbeth?