56 pages • 1 hour read
Ava ReidLady Macbeth
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaSymbols & Motifs
Animals
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses misogyny and xenophobia, physical and sexual violence (including rape), and ableist language.
Ava Reid uses animals throughout the book as a motif that explores The Origins of Individual Identity and Humanity. For instance, Roscille characterizes both herself and others in terms of different animals, showing how she feels she is immersed in a dehumanizing culture in which the struggle to survive trumps human connection. She selects animals whose characteristics relate to how she sees people’s identities. The ermine, or weasel, is a symbol of cunning and intelligence. This animal features on her father’s coat of arms, and she has always seen herself as inheriting its (and his) traits. However, amid her sense of betrayal and feelings of helplessness, she sometimes loses her identification with this animal, though her final triumph over Macbeth proves the comparison apt.
Roscille also compares herself to a bird, recalling the beautiful bird Macbeth killed during the wedding ceremony. This gesture purportedly symbolizes his power to protect her but also carries implicit threat, representing his physical dominance over his new wife. The bird’s death, bleeding through its white feathers, foreshadows the violent ending of her innocence both through her rape and through her own participation in violence. In her native culture, birds are also wedding gifts but are kept alive in cages. Reid therefore uses birds to symbolize the societal position of women, who are treated as objects of beauty to be trapped, consumed, and controlled. They show the difficulty Roscille faces in exercising Agency in a Violent World.
Roscille also characterizes Macbeth’s men as animals: a weasel, a fox, and a mountain goat. These animals represent their Scottish identity but also suggest that they are hardy and tough, with sharp horns or teeth ready for battle. That Roscille does not know their names heightens her sense of them as animalistic fighters rather than full humans.
Lisander is also associated with an animal: He transforms into a dragon. This creature is dangerous, symbolically suggesting Lisander’s possessiveness and sexual urges. However, its mythical quality and ability to fly symbolize the escape he offers to Roscille: a romantic life in which she and her magic are fully accepted.
The Necklace
The necklace that Macbeth gets for Roscille is a recurring symbol. Her request for it highlights the cultural differences between her father’s materially luxurious court and her new environment, which she sees as brutal and harsh, with no room for indulgence. It also shows her cleverness, as she manipulates these cultural differences to make a demand that she knows will delay her rape; she has researched local customs and material culture and knows that the necklace can only be made from materials located in the territory of Macbeth’s enemy, Cawder. The necklace encapsulates her willingness to play along with others’ perceptions, using them like a disguise to seem vain and pampered rather than conniving. Similarly, once she has the necklace, she at times uses it as a shield from the outer world, as when she covers Lisander’s love bites with it.
At the same time, the necklace is a constant reminder of the secrets she carries and the lengths she went to protect herself, including inflicting war on a huge number of people. Its red rubies symbolize this bloodshed as well as the violence she herself is subjected to. In this vein, rather than indicating Macbeth’s willingness to grant her demand, the necklace comes to symbolize that she belongs to him. It rubs her skin harshly, especially when Macbeth tightens it as a reminder of his control and an implicit threat ensuring her obedience. The constriction of her neck and the constant pain of wearing the necklace symbolize the restriction of her freedom and illustrate her exhaustion as she struggles to survive the world’s continuous assaults on her.
Water
Water is a recurring motif in the book. Initially, Reid presents it as a dangerous, wild force that threatens the characters generally and women in particular. Roscille believes that Hawise’s murderers threw her into the rough sea, and the witches are trapped in a basement, living half-submerged in cold water. Like violent patriarchal society, water is a force that entraps or harms women. Though Roscille begins to see its violence as a source of escape when she considers throwing herself into the sea, this is framed as capitulation to her circumstances rather than as defiance.
However, Reid also associates water with women’s magic. Gruoch is described as having eyes like water, and the witches are characterized as washerwomen who use the water around them, performing this action ritualistically as they make their powerful prophecies. Reid thus imbues water with power and mystique: Mysterious currents swirl around the basement, symbolizing the flow of time and the witches’ magical interaction with it. The flowing water makes the basement a liminal space in which different pathways become possible. Ultimately, Roscille learns that she can exercise agency in these crossroad moments. Instead of submitting to entrapment in the basement, she and the witches combine their power to free themselves, demonstrating The Truth of Myth and Magic.
The magical pool functions similarly. After escaping from the castle, Roscille considers drowning herself within it. However, when she meets Lisander, they instead have sex in the water, allowing her to express her agency through love rather than destruction. Its stillness and calm reflect her growing relationship with her magic: She learns not to be afraid of this powerful force and finds that it can even be a source of peace.
