In the small things, hope floats

October 4, 2026 — 5:30am

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When Lady Macbeth scorns Macbeth for his hesitation to murder with the words “Yet do I fear thy nature/it is too full of the milk of human kindness”, she turns a virtue into a viper.

To Lady Macbeth, the milk of human kindness has curdled Macbeth’s mind. It is an impediment to ambition, and thus a thing to be dismissed as a weakness of the spirit. Not for long though. Duncan would be dealt with, fatally. Happy endings, however, for the Macbeths were not to be had. Death was the cup from which they would drink.

How the milk of human kindness flows through life can often be down to dumb luck as much as deliberate actions from one to........

© The Age