“Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty.”William Shakespeare · Macbeth · 1606 · Actul I, scena 5
Deliberate cruelty doesn't come naturally: first you must numb the part of you that resists.
Her prayer to the spirits shows that cruelty is not natural to her; it must be summoned. She imagines mercy as a substance in the body that can be swapped for poison, and asks for a total intervention on the self. The mechanism is self-reformation: people who intend harm must first numb the parts of themselves that resist. A concrete case: the employee about to blame a colleague who repeats to herself that it is not personal, to smother her scruples before speaking.
Passage 1 — Her plea hides a paradox. If her mercy were truly gone, there would be nothing left to numb. The fact that she begs the spirits shows her scruples are alive and must be smothered from outside. Cruelty does not come naturally to her, so it must be maintained, like a plant watered daily. Think of someone lying for the first time, repeating the story to themselves each evening so it does not slip out. The lie does not become truth; it becomes a burden requiring constant care. Which raises a question: what happens when the numbness wears off and everything postponed comes back?
Why it matters The line shows the price of deliberate cruelty: to become insensitive on demand, you must give up part of yourself permanently, not just for the moment.