The Raven Soliloquy

Act 1: Scene 5: Lines 38 - 52

The raven himself is hoarse	The raven, a symbol foreshadowing death, becomes hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan	at croaking to foreshadow the entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits	into my castle. Come spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,	that possess the power to modify the thoughts of mortals as me, remove my weak femininity,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full	and fill my being
Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood.	with cruelty.
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,	Prevent me from feeling regret and guilt,
That no compunctious visitings of nature	such that none of my caring nature can
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between	come between me and my goals.
The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,	Come to my breasts
And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers,	and exchange the milk that I would use to care for a child for sourness
Wherever in your sightless substances	wherever you may hide, invisible,
You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night,	waiting to create chaos. Come the night
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,	and hide, with the darkest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,	the wound my knife would make,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark	and hide from heaven and all that is good my actions,
To cry “Hold, hold!”	so as to give me no doubts, and not to plead with me to stop.

Here, Lady Macbeth calls upon evil spirits to give her the resolve to put aside her morals so that she may commit such a sinful act as the murder of the king. She wants to escape the human emotions, such as guilt, so that she may commit this crime unhindered. This shows us her determination to kill Duncan, by saying that she would sacrifice her very womanhood to accomplish such a task.