blablabla
DramaAdultprivateruthless

Lady Macbeth: unsex me here

With Duncan on his way, Lady Macbeth calls on the spirits to make her capable of carrying out the murder she imagines.

Casting
Lady Macbeth, 28 to 50.
Duration
About 64 seconds
Difficulty
Advanced
Setting
A room in Macbeth’s castle, immediately after the messenger announces Duncan’s arrival.
Scene heading
INT. MACBETH’S CASTLE - DAY
Content notes
Murder imagery, Invocation of spirits, & Violent bodily imagery
Language
English
Role notes

Playing age: 28-50

Lady Macbeth

Wants: Make herself able to act without remorse.

Up against: The very need to ask suggests that her body and conscience may resist.

Choice prompts

  • Choose where the spirits are, or whether she is trying to make herself believe they can hear.
  • Give each command a physical need without illustrating every image.
Full text

Lady Macbeth: unsex me here

INT. MACBETH’S CASTLE - DAY

Exit Messenger.

Lady Macbeth

The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. 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 th’ access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between Th’ effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts, And take my milk for gall, your murd’ring ministers, Wherever in your sightless substances You wait on nature’s mischief! Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark To cry, “Hold, hold!”

Using Claude? Ask it for a scene or a monologue from this library, and a plan for the days you have. How it works →