Why does Lady Macbeth pray to be unsexed?

Answer 1

Lady Macbeth is referring to her Feminine nature and she is trying to say " Take away my feminine nature and take away my feelings so I feel no regret to helping kill King Duncan!"

So she is saying if you take away My womanly feelings I can help Macbeth in this plot!

Answer 2

Lady Macbeth asks the spirits to unsex her because she wants to have the strength of a man. She wants to be able to murder Duncan, a task that she must hand over to her husband instead, who she does not have much faith in.

Answer 3

Lady Macbeth prays to be unsexed because she thinks her femininity makes her weak. She is too kind and gentle. She needs her kindness to be taken away so she can plan the murder and make Macbeth kill King Duncan.

Answer 4

Herself. She prays to the spirits that tend on mortal thoughts to "unsex me here". By which she means that she doesn't want to be a kind, caring, empathetic, sensitive woman; she wants to be a mean uncaring bastard of a man. It's not all that complimentary to men when you think about it.

Answer 5

It's a soliloquy, and like most soliloquys, gives some insight into the character of the speaker. In this speech Lady Macbeth talks about what she believes she must do in order to ensure that Duncan gets murdered and the Prophecy fulfilled. Among other things she defines femininity as lacking the strength or cruelty to carry through her plan, so she asks to be "unsexed" or made into a man, and to have her breasts filled with gall. Later in talking to macbeth she will talk about tearing a baby from her breast and killing it, prompting Macbeth to say "bring forth men children only", an odd endorsement of her capacity as a mother.

On the other hand she says that Macbeth is "too full of the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way", suggesting that she believes that he does not come up to the standard of cruel masculinity she is setting. Her line "If he had not resembled my father as he slept, I'd ha' done it."

Answer 6

Lady Macbeth is thinking of the notion that women are compassionate and sympathetic. She wants the spirits to "unsex" her, make her more like a man, so she will be less compassionate and sympathetic. At least in theory. The irony is that when push comes to shove, she cannot kill Duncan because "he resembled her father as he slept", demonstrating the very kind of sympathy and compassion she doesn't want to have.

Answer 7

She wants the strength to kill the king herself or get Macbeth to kill him. She thinks being a woman makes her weak and wants to be "unsexed" so she can be stronger.

Answer 8

Act I, the last scene