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Rhetorical Analysis Lady Macbeth

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Within this excerpt from William Shakespeare's Macbeth, Lady Macbeth gives a monologue expressing her dark desires. Lady Macbeth’s desire for the removal of her nurturing qualities to murder King Duncan is expressed through alliteration, metaphors, and pleading diction. The alliteration and metaphors used by Lady Macbeth accentuate her desires. Speaking to spirits, she requests, “unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top- full of direst cruelty”. Lady Macbeth asks to not be a female in order to obtain cruelty. This is a metaphorical statement as she does not wish to stop being female, but wishes to trade her female attributes of mercy and strong morals in exchange for cruelty in order to murder King Duncan. The alliteration present in “to the toe top” highlights Lady Macbeth’s aspiration for complete ruthlessness. The act of murder requires every space of her body to emit brutality. Lady Macbeth’s saying of, “Make thick my blood” is a non-literal as well. She wishes for the nullification of remorse through saying it would be blocked by thick blood. Similar expressions are prevalent within her …show more content…

The use of “direst cruelty” in Lady Macbeth’s “unsex” statement accentuates that this is a necessary act. The use of “direst” displays the urgency and importance she puts to the acquisition of cruelty. Lady Macbeth’s saying of, “Come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,” expresses her concerns of her murderous plans through word choice. The use of “thick night” and “dunnest smoke” convey that Lady Macbeth wants her upcoming sins to be shrouded by darkness. She does not want the heavens to know of her actions as she acknowledges that they are sins. The combined use of figurative language and pleading word choice within Lady Macbeth's monologue display her covet for cruelty instead of nurture with the intention to murder King

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