Excerpt 1: Read the excerpt from act 1, scene 5 of
The Tragedy of Macbeth Lady Macbeth has just read
Macbeth's letter about the witches' prophecy and his
promotion to thane of Cawdor
[Lady Macbeth] Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts! unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top full
Of direst cruelty, make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischiefl Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
"Nor heaven peeo through the blanket of the dark
How does Shakespeare most dévelop the universal
themes "the relationship between violence and human
nature" and "the consuming power of guilt" in these
excerpts?
O through the comparison of Lady Macbeth's resolve
and Macbeth's uncertainty
O through each character's appeal to the
supernatural
O through the contrast between Macbeth's disloyalty
and Duncan's trustworthiness
ohrough the conflict between Macbeth and Lady
Macbeth