20 Macbeth Act 5 Scene 1 Full Commentary and Analysis

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This video is a line-by-line walkthrough guide for William Shakespeare’s Macbeth: Act 5, Scene 1.

I provide a close reading of the entire scene, including:
— Detailed explication
— Commentary
— Literary analysis

All commentary is supplemented by in-text, line-by-line study notes designed to help students:
— Prepare for GCSE, A-Level, IB, and AP evaluation
— Prepare for general high school and college quizzes, exams, and essays
— Generate ideas for analysis essays
— Participate knowledgeably in class discussions
Click here to download the annotated text of Macbeth: https://sites.google.com/view/shakespeare-walkthrough/home

This video discusses :

PLOT:
— A gentlewoman meets a doctor late a night to observe Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking
— Lady Macbeth arrives, asleep, and attempts to wash her hands of the stain of blood, a metaphor for her extreme guilt; subconsciously tries to scapegoat these “weak” feeling (guilt, fear, regret) on Macbeth
— The gentlewoman and doctor are shocked and speechless

CHARACTER:
— Lady Macbeth: fears punishment in afterlife = cowardice like Macbeth; Lady Mac’s conception of herself as brave will not let her consciously admit to her own fears, but her fears make themselves felt in dreams (Freud); scapegoats her husband to absolve herself of the taint of cowardice
— Lady Macbeth: mirror of Macbeth; not a sociopath; morally aware; tragedy is the result of lack of self-awareness, wrong Hagrid

THEME:
— Sleep as innocence/healer; “Macbeth doth murder sleep”
— Nature vs the unnatural
— Manhood = masculine+feminine; Lady Macbeth can’t live as the purely masculine self she attempted to create
— Wasteland: in corrupt society, you may be denounced by anyone; loss of trust; gentlewoman doesn’t trust the doctor
— Redemption question: are the Macbeth’s redeemed by their agonies? If not, why does Shakespeare want us to pity them, as we (and gentlewoman/doctor) pity Lady Macbeth here?
— Scapegoating: Lady Macbeth’s desperate attempt to deflect weakness from herself onto Macbeth
— Alienation from the self: self-deceit leads to mental breakdown
— Great Chain of Being disrupted