Key Quote
“"Look like th'innocent flower, but be the serpent under't"”
Lady Macbeth · Act 1, Scene 5
Focus: “serpent”
Lady Macbeth instructs her husband in the art of deception, using biblical imagery to reveal her willingness to embrace evil for the sake of ambition.
Technique 1 — BIBLICAL ALLUSION / EDENIC IMAGERY
The serpent directly alludes to the serpent in the Garden of Eden — Satan's disguise when tempting Eve. By invoking this image, Lady Macbeth casts herself in a diabolical (devilish) role, consciously adopting the methods of evil. The allusion (indirect reference) positions the Macbeths' plot as a re-enactment of the Fall of Man, with Duncan as innocent Adam and the Macbeths as agents of perdition (eternal damnation).
The imperative mood — 'Look... be' — reveals Lady Macbeth's dominance in this scene. She does not suggest but commands, assuming the role of strategist while positioning Macbeth as the instrument of her ambition. This inversion of expected gender dynamics was deeply shocking to a Jacobean audience.
Key Words
RAD — REGRESS
Lady Macbeth undergoes a clear moral regression in this moment: she actively chooses deception over virtue, embracing evil as a conscious strategy. Her complicity (involvement in wrongdoing) is not passive but deliberately engineered — she is the architect of Duncan's murder, making her regression more culpable (deserving of blame) than Macbeth's wavering.
Key Words
Technique 2 — JUXTAPOSITION / SEMANTIC FIELD OF CONCEALMENT
The juxtaposition of 'innocent flower' and 'serpent' creates a semantic field (a group of words related by meaning) of concealment and duplicity. The flower represents the facade (false outward appearance) of hospitality and loyalty that the Macbeths must maintain as hosts, while the serpent represents the latent (hidden) violence beneath. This dual image encapsulates the play's central theme: the gap between appearance and reality.
Shakespeare layers natural imagery with moral meaning — flowers and serpents belong to the natural world but are loaded with symbolic significance. This pathetic fallacy in reverse (nature used to describe human deception) suggests that the Macbeths' plot corrupts the natural order itself.
Key Words
Context (AO3)
GENDER TRANSGRESSION
Jacobean women were expected to be submissive (obedient, yielding) and nurturing. Lady Macbeth's commanding tone and strategic thinking transgress (violate, go beyond) these boundaries, aligning her with the unnatural forces of the Witches. Her later invocation — 'unsex me here' — makes this gender transgression explicit.
DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS
Duncan is not merely a king but God's appointed representative on Earth. To murder him while a guest — violating both regicide and the sacred obligation of hospitality — is a double sin. Lady Macbeth's serpent imagery positions their act as Satanic rebellion against the divine order.
Key Words
WOW — MACHIAVELLIAN REALPOLITIK
Lady Macbeth's advice mirrors Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince (1532): 'Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.' This Machiavellian (cunning, amoral, politically manipulative) counsel reduces morality to performance — virtue is merely a mask to be worn and discarded. Shakespeare explores a world where political success requires the suppression of conscience, anticipating Hannah Arendt's concept of the banality of evil — the idea that atrocity is enabled by ordinary people making calculated choices. Lady Macbeth's calm, rational instruction in evil is more terrifying than any emotional outburst.
Key Words