LADY MACBETH
I have given suck, and know How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums, And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you Have done to this.
From her full-fronted attack, Lady Macbeth appears to momentarily soften, presenting her femininity in a seemingly heartfelt memory of breastfeeding. The caesura separating this from her claim that Macbeth’s cowardice has “unmade” him [previous extract] disrupts the pace and rhythmic pulse of the line, and her memory of “tender” love for her “babe” appears to be a slip of her façade. Her reference to a child is bizarre: there is no other mention in the play – despite its clear concern with succession – of the Macbeths having (or losing) a child. Whether it is a literal child (which the definite language of “I have” and “know” certainly suggest) or a figurative expression, it clearly serves as a counterpoint to the other images of children – Macduff’s “pretty ones”, Fleance, even the scene’s earlier image of the “newborn naked babe” grieving over Duncan. There is little time, though, for the audience to be reassured by Lady Macbeth’s feminine reflections. Even before her threat of violence, the maternal image of “the babe that milks me” is unsettling as it recalls her demands to the spirits in her soliloquy in 1.5 to “take my milk for gall”. The eeriness of the echoes intensifies the brazen claim that she would kill her child if she had promised to do so. It is unclear whether she is unashamedly guilt-tripping Macbeth by using emotive imagery of a son they have lost or, rather, metaphorically stating the potential devastating extent of her cruelty The latter interpretation is made stronger by the violence of the verbs “pluck’d” and “dash’d”, where the plosive sounds show aggression and the active nature of the verbs (as opposed to the passive voice she often reverts to regarding Duncan’s murder) unsettle us further. Her threat – whilst clearly imaginary and hyperbolic – feels more visceral than any of their plans for the real murder; the contrast of the vulnerability connoted by “boneless” and the cruelty of the somewhat clinical “brains” amplify the gruesome nature of murdering the innocent. Her capability to do so (at least in the world of hypothetical language) is a way of mocking Macbeth’s hesitation in killing Duncan, who is certainly not as innocent as the “smiling” babe.
- Ruiyun