macbeth courage essay

A Short Analysis of Lady Macbeth’s ‘But Screw Your Courage to the Sticking-Place’ Speech

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Lady Macbeth’s speech beginning ‘We fail! But screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we’ll not fail’ comes at the end of Act 1 of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth . Lady Macbeth’s words come just after she has taunted her husband for his perceived lack of manliness, because he is now vacillating and having second thoughts about their plan to kill Duncan so Macbeth can seize the crown of Scotland for himself. We have analysed the earlier exchange between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth here .

Let’s take a closer look at the ‘screw your courage to the sticking-place’ speech, offering a summary and analysis of its meaning and language as we go.

LADY MACBETH: We fail!

Even before we get to the famous line about screwing your courage to the sticking-place, we have these curious two words from Lady Macbeth, which, like another short statement from the play (Macduff’s ‘He hasn’t any children’) can be interpreted in three very different ways.

Indeed, as Kenneth Muir observes in the notes to the excellent Arden edition of the play, “Macbeth” (Arden Shakespeare: Second Series) , the eighteenth-century actress Mrs Siddons variously rendered the line as ‘We fail ?’ (i.e., ‘how could we fail when the task ahead is so easy?’), as ‘ We fail!’ (as in ‘how could the two of us, given how cunning and strong we are, possibly fail? Others might, but we cannot, don’t be stupid!’), and, finally, as ‘We fail’ (i.e., not a question, nor an exclamation of incredulity, but a simple statement: ‘so, if we fail, we fail: so be it’).

Of course, these three renderings all give Lady Macbeth’s two words a very different meaning. But as Muir notes, critics have argued in favour of all three, so it’s impossible to say which Shakespeare intended. However, the First Folio (the first time the play was printed) has a question mark, so ‘We fail?’, which, although published after Shakespeare’s death, was assembled by actors who worked with Shakespeare.

But screw your courage to the sticking-place, And we’ll not fail.

If Macbeth can recover his courage, they will not fail. ‘But screw’ means ‘Only screw’: in other words, all Macbeth requires is a little courage now. Muir once again alerts us to the multiple meanings of the image conjured by ‘screw your courage to the sticking-place’, which is interpreted variously as referring to the screwing up of strings on a viol (stringed instrument) and a soldier screwing up the cord of his cross-bow to its ‘sticking-place’, ready to shoot a quarrel or bolt.

When Duncan is asleep – Whereto the rather shall his day’s hard journey Soundly invite him – his two chamberlains Will I with wine and wassail so convince

Lady Macbeth outlines her plan: when Duncan is asleep (and his journey to the Macbeths’ castle will have tired him out) she will get his two ‘chamberlains’ (or servants, gentlemen-of-the-bedchamber) drunk with wine and ‘wassail’ (a spiced mulled cider usually drunk during the cold months of the year).

That memory, the warder of the brain, Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason A limbeck only:

These chamberlains will be so drunk that they will not be able to remember what happened. Memory was regarded in Shakespeare’s time as at the back of the brain, and so was regarded as the ‘warder’ of the cerebellum in that it kept watch over the rest; but in Shakespeare’s image, memory is transformed through drunkenness into a fume or haze, which clouds the rest of the brain. Thus the brain becomes like an ‘alembic’ or ‘limbeck’, the cap part of distilling apparatus.

when in swinish sleep Their drenched natures lie as in a death, What cannot you and I perform upon The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt Of our great quell?

When these servants lie asleep like pigs, dead to the world, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth will be able to do whatever they want to Duncan, unguarded as he will be. And they can put all the blame upon the chamberlains (‘spongy’ being a rather delightful synonym for ‘drunken’ here; ‘quell’ refers to Duncan’s murder, a word that shares the same root as the word ‘kill’).

MACBETH: Bring forth men-children only; For thy undaunted mettle should compose Nothing but males. Will it not be received, When we have mark’d with blood those sleepy two Of his own chamber and used their very daggers, That they have done’t?

‘How many children had Lady Macbeth?’ was the title of a long essay by the critic L. C. Knights, published in 1933, mocking the school of criticism (ultimately influenced by the critic A. C. Bradley) which seeks to ask, and answer, such questions about details hinted at, but not confirmed, in the play concerning characters’ lives.

Clearly Lady Macbeth has had children (and ‘given suck’, as she had put it in her earlier speech in this scene), but she and Macbeth appear to have no living children; at least, they’re never mentioned.

Here, Macbeth tells his wife to give birth only to male children, for her fearless spirit or ‘mettle’ could create nothing but masculine children. He then returns to the plan, asking her if she truly believes people will accept the chamberlains’ guilt as true, if the Macbeths make it look as if those hapless servants are the guilty ones.

Note how quickly Macbeth has been converted to his wife’s scheme (as Muir points out): as soon as she offers a practical way forward, he is sold on it. It’s also worth noting the vulnerability of his questioning here (‘Will it not be received …’): he is clearly easily led by his smart and quick-thinking, pragmatic wife.

LADY MACBETH: Who dares receive it other, As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar Upon his death?

In other words, ‘who would dare believe otherwise, when you and I, dear husband, will make a big show of being distraught and angered by Duncan’s death?’ Note: ‘griefs and clamour’ might be analysed as an instance of hendiadys , a rare but fascinating rhetorical device whereby two closely related things are joined oddly by an ‘and’: so ‘griefs’ and ‘clamour’ should not be viewed as two separate things, but as wholly associated, so ‘griefs and clamour’ really means ‘clamorous griefs’.

MACBETH: I am settled, and bend up Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. Away, and mock the time with fairest show: False face must hide what the false heart doth know.

The scene – and the act – ends with Macbeth telling his wife that he is happy with the plan she has outlined, and every part of his body will now be given over to carrying it out. He tells his wife to leave him, and put on a good show in front of their guests, to delude them into thinking nothing suspicious is going. Her lying face must hide what her lying heart knows is about to take place …

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2 thoughts on “A Short Analysis of Lady Macbeth’s ‘But Screw Your Courage to the Sticking-Place’ Speech”

Bring forth male children only? Why? Lady Macbeth is a fierce human being who achieves her goal through violence she coaxes from her husband. What’s more martial, the one who orders the killing or the killer? Lady M’s female babes would be every bit as dangerous as male offspring if they’re anything like her. Let’s remember that in the Scottish era of the real Macbeth, a king often achieves the throne by violence and holds it until he’s violently deposed. Those Scottish Picts were no one to wince at violence, male or female. Shakespeare’s king James probably needed to hear that he was safely on an English throne rather than a Medieval Scottish seat.

I always got the “screw your courage to the sticking place” line’s intent, but I never considered the precise image that may have been portrayed until this post! The crossbow seems likely, the viol less so, as there’s a sticking place when the weapon is fully cocked. The viols tuning keys were friction only and not gears such as on modern guitars and there’s no catch or special location or action when tuned to pitch, one continually presses the conical peg into similarly shaped pegbox so that the increased friction between the surfaces holds its location.

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Ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Over and over again in Macbeth , characters discuss or debate about manhood: Lady Macbeth challenges Macbeth when he decides not to kill Duncan, Banquo refuses to join Macbeth in his plot, Lady Macduff questions Macduff's decision to go to England, and on and on.

Through these challenges, Macbeth questions and examines manhood itself. Does a true man take what he wants no matter what it is, as Lady Macbeth believes? Or does a real man have the strength to restrain his desires, as Banquo believes? All of Macbeth can be seen as a struggle to answer this question about the nature and responsibilities of manhood.

Manhood ThemeTracker

Manhood Quotes in Macbeth

Macbeth Essays

There are loads of ways you can approach writing an essay, but the two i favour are detailed below., the key thing to remember is that an essay should focus on the three aos:, ao1: plot and character development; ao2: language and technique; ao3: context, strategy 1 : extract / rest of play, the first strategy basically splits the essay into 3 paragraphs., the first paragraph focuses on the extract, the second focuses on the rest of the play, the third focuses on context. essentially, it's one ao per paragraph, for a really neatly organised essay., strategy 2 : a structured essay with an argument, this strategy allows you to get a much higher marks as it's structured to form an argument about the whole text. although you might think that's harder - and it's probably going to score more highly - i'd argue that it's actually easier to master. mainly because you do most of the work before the day of the exam., to see some examples of these, click on the links below:, lady macbeth as a powerful woman, macbeth as a heroic character, the key to this style is remembering this: you're going to get a question about a theme, and the extract will definitely relate to the theme., the strategy here is planning out your essays before the exam, knowing that the extract will fit into them somehow., below are some structured essays i've put together., macbeth and gender.

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Courage in Macbeth

• English Literature
• Created by: cristelle_bae
• Created on: 28-10-19 17:26
• 1.2- Macbeth's bravery is praised
• 1.7- Lady Macbeth questions Macbeth's courage
• 2.3- Macbeth defends the killing of Duncan's servants
• 4.3- the Macduff's must show courage to defeat Macbeth
• 5.3- Macbeth's courage comes from the fact that he thinks he is invincible
• 5.8- Macbeth bravely fights
• 1.2- SARGEANT: 'Brave Macbeth- well he deserves that name'
• 1.7- MAC: 'I dare do all that may become a man'
• 1.7- LM: 'screw your courage to the sticking place'
• 2.3- MAC 'that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to makes love known?'
• 4.3- MAL: 'dispute it like a man'

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Essay Sample: Theme of Courage in Macbeth

Macbeth is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare in the early 17th century. The play's main character, the courageous Macbeth, is told by three witches he will be King of Scotland. Consumed by his ambition and desire, he seeks to solidify his place on the throne, and so with the encouragement of his wife, he goes on to kill the king. After being crowned the new king, Macbeth quickly loses his initial loyalty to the country, and his pureness of heart promptly fades and is replaced with his need for power. Although in the play, Macbeth commits many heinous acts, his manhood and masculinity are constantly challenged by his own wife when he demonstrates even the slightest bit of hesitation or guilt at the idea of committing these crimes. However, I disagree with Lady Macbeth on her opinion of what masculinity consists of. I believe that what it takes to be a man is not reduced to a ruthless and undaunted nature, especially in today's society.

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both seem to believe there to be a direct correlation between one’s manhood and one’s brutality. In Act 1, Scene 7, Macbeth tells his wife may she only birth sons, saying, “...thy undaunted mettle should compose nothing but males,” and Lady Macbeth shows no disagreement. This tells me that not only do they associate masculinity with naked aggression, but that they do not think one with strong femininity has the capability of being wicked. This is supported earlier on in Act 1, Scene 5 when Lady Macbeth calls on evil spirits to “unsex” her, effectively saying she wishes to become less like a woman and more like a man in order for her to achieve the level of inhumanity needed in order to kill the king. The ideology of manliness portrayed in the play is quite the contrast to what I consider it to truly be.

The notion presented in Macbeth is that men are the only ones capable of immense hostility, and the fact that they are still often held up to these heartless expectations in today’s world is entirely backward and outdated. This mindset restrains men to a standard of living that requires them to be tough and unrelenting, and in turn, causes many men to live in fear of being seen as “weak”. A man does not need to be violent and unsympathetic in order to be “manly”. I believe that a true man is one who is self-assured of their own masculinity, no matter how they act, dress, or feel. Masculinity is not defined by physical and brutal strength, but rather by one’s strength of character. If anything, Shakespeare seems to contradict himself throughout the play, seeing as the women are also sources of savagery in the play in the characters of Lady Macbeth and the witches.

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