Macbeth • Act 5, Scene 1 • Lady Macbeth
“Out, damned spot! out, I say!--One: two: why,” — Out, Damned Spot Meaning
Lady Macbeth speaks as she sleepwalks and addresses an imagined stain she cannot remove. Her repeated orders to banish the spot and the fragmentary counting make her speech sound compulsive and disturbed; observers note and record her words, so this utterance converts a private, visible mark into something publicly documented and alarming.
Plain-English meaning
Get out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One: two: why,
Who says it, and what is happening?
In a chamber a gentlewoman and a doctor watch Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking. She has already remarked 'here's a spot,' and now speaks aloud, urging the stain to go and counting as she talks. The doctor says he will set down what comes from her to satisfy memory. Her fragmented remarks—'Hell is murky' and 'a soldier, and afeard?'—heighten the strangeness and warrant medical attention, rendering private disturbance into recorded speech.
Language and literary analysis
The speech’s vocal texture makes inner compulsion audible. The imperative 'Out, damned spot! out, I say!' uses exclamation and command to externalize an internal pressure, while the sudden 'One: two' counting fractures syntax and suggests ritualized repetition or disordered thought. Phrases such as 'Hell is murky' and the rhetorical rebuke 'a soldier, and afeard?' combine moral language with bodily imagery (the spot), producing a collision of conscience and the visible. Dramatically, the doctor’s decision to record her words frames the utterance as evidence, transforming private delirium into material that others can inspect. The clipped exclamations and asyndetic phrasing make her speech breathless and obsessive, underscoring her disturbance.
How to use the quote in an essay
To show guilt made visible and publicly witnessed, cite 'Out, damned spot!' along with the stage direction that the doctor will record her words. Use the line to argue that a supposed physical stain becomes symptomatic language—embodied guilt articulated and preserved before witnesses.
Questions about this quote
Is Lady Macbeth actually washing blood from her hands?
The scene records only her speech about a 'spot' and others’ observation; it does not confirm whether a literal bloodstain is present now. Her imperative to remove the spot and the doctor's note-taking indicate the mark’s psychological importance, whether or not there is physical blood in the chamber.
Why does the doctor write down her words?
The doctor explicitly says he will 'set down what comes from her' to strengthen his memory. His note-taking turns fragmented sleep-speech into recorded testimony, preserving details for others and signaling that her utterances are being treated as important material to be assessed or reported.
Read this line in the complete side-by-side scene. · Read the scene revision guide.
Original text source: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, MIT HTML edition. MIT states that its HTML versions of the plays are placed in the public domain.