Quote Analysis

Lady Macbeth instructs her husband on exactly how to behave when Duncan arrives: he must appear welcoming while hiding murderous intent.

The flower/serpent image compresses two opposed emblems into one body, making hypocrisy sound almost natural—as if a single entity can be two things at once without contradiction. The imperative 'look like' (repeated) emphasizes performance over essence; Lady Macbeth is not asking Macbeth to become innocent but to costume himself in innocence while the serpent remains underneath, fully intact.

Support a thesis that Lady Macbeth teaches Macbeth to split appearance from reality as a deliberate strategy—the flower and serpent coexist rather than conflict, suggesting that successful tyranny depends on maintaining both identities simultaneously without letting one contaminate the other.