Lady Macbeth persists in trying to wash an imagined bloodstain from her hands, saying "Out, damned spot! Out, I say!" She is reliving the murder of Duncan over and over, hearing bells and seeing sights from that night. She switches between addressing an imagined bloodstain and chiding an imagined Macbeth for his fear. Her words reveal that she is now terrified herself of everything. The doctor recognizes the significance of her words, as she has now confessed details about Duncan's murder.

1. Macbeth – whom did you meet?

2. Draw a stick figure of Lady Macbeth. At the end of
the lesson add a few speech bubbles with quotes:
Out,
damned
spot! Out, I
say!

3. Macbeth 4 – Lady Macbeth, “Out, damned spot.” (Act 5, Scene 1).
DOCTOR:
How came she by that light?
GENTLEWOMAN:
Why, it stood by her. She has light by her
continually; ’tis her command.
DOCTOR:
You see, her eyes are open.
GENTLEWOMAN:
Ay, but their sense is shut.

4. Language techniques in Shakespeare
Lady Macbeth
Out, damned spot, out, I say. — One, two — why,
then, 'tis time to do't. — Hell is murky. — Fie, my
lord, fie, a soldier, and afeard! What need we
fear who knows it, when none can call our power to
account? Yet who would have thought the old man
to have had so much blood in him?
switch
repetition

5. Language techniques in Shakespeare
Lady Macbeth
Yet who would have thought the old man
to have had so much blood in him?
Here's the smell of the blood still. All the
perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
hand. Oh, oh, oh.
motif (main theme)
five senses
hyperbole (exaggeration)

6. Let’s watch Lady Macbeth – her last scene
• Lady Macbeth last scene

7. At the exam, be a detective / psychologist. Ask
yourself: What is this person saying? What do
these words mean?
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

9. The theme of light and darkness is important here
Light in Macbeth

10. Let’s listen to the whole scene, focusing on what Lady Macbeth
is saying and HOW she is saying it:
Language of Lady Macbeth

11. Macbeth 4 – Lady Macbeth, “Out, damned spot.” (Act 5, Scene 1).
LADY MACBETH:
Out, damned spot! Out, I say!
One–two—why then ’tis time to do’t.
Hell is murky.
Fie, my lord, fie!
A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it,
when none can call our power to account? Yet who would
have thought the old man to have had so much blood in
him?

12. «Макбет», перевод Бориса Пастернака
Леди Макбет
Ах ты, проклятое пятно! Ну когда
же ты сойдешь?
Раз, два... Ну что же ты? Пора за
работу.
Ада испугался?
Фу, фу, солдат, а какой трус! Кого
бояться? После того как это будет
сделано, кто осмелится нас
спрашивать? Но кто бы мог
думать, что в старике окажется
столько крови!

13. Level 9 homework: copy out this paragraph by hand. Do you feel sorry
for Lady Macbeth? Why? Write down your own thoughts
Lady Macbeth, meanwhile, persists in her washing, with increasing frustration: out, damned spot; out, I
say! The spot (can it be imagined as anything but blood? probably not) won’t budge. It goes without
saying: Lady Macbeth’s hands are immaculately clean, spotless.
Then she’s distracted: one, two: why then, ’tis time to do’t. The bell strikes, or the clock, both in her
imagination. She is reliving the night of Duncan’s murder, over and over again (’tis time) in a jumble of
sounds and sights.
Another, chilling, switch: hell is murky. This is, after all, the play of darkness; she herself imagined night as
palled in the smoke of hell, the blanket of the dark. That’s the night in which she now walks, in which she
gropes, terrified, for light.
Switch: an imagined interlocutor, Macbeth, to chide, berate. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, and afeard? What
are you afraid of, big man? Just do it. (She’s now afraid of everything.) What need we fear who knows it,
when none can call our power to account? Surely we’re untouchable, even if it somehow gets out what
we’ve done? What they’ve done is still, perhaps, unclear to the Doctor at least, until she reveals another
aspect of her nightmare, what she’s seeing all the time, what she’s trying to wash away: yet who would
have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? The old are meant to be dry, bloodless, but
that wasn’t the case. So much blood, on hands, blades, sheets, floor. It’s the blood in the mind’s eye that
can’t be scrubbed away, that seeps, streams, stains. Do you mark that? asks the Doctor—well, the
Gentlewoman’s heard it all before, but he is signalling that he recognises the significance of what Lady
Macbeth’s just said; a confession.
Source: https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/daggerdrawn/2022/03/22/lady-macbeth-out-damned-
spot-5-1-27-35-daggerdrawn-slowshakespeare/