Shakespeare, like any other man in the 16th and 17th century, saw ambitious and dominant women as evil and even disturbing or disturbed. From Macbeth, we can see Shakespeare feels women should be challenged and punished because they are trying to change society. Nowadays these ambitious and dominant women are regarded as brave and respected because of their ambition, such as Lady Macbeth’s ambition to become Queen. Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as mentally disturbed. At first, rather than putting all the blame on Macbeth she is proud of her involvement in the murder stating: “My hands are of your colour but I shame to wear a heart so white.” Initially this villainizes her as she is in control rather than being an obedient wife going against Jacobean stereotypes …show more content…
That summons thee to heaven, or to hell” as these reference the unmoral parts of her life suggesting her disturbed nature could be because of her lack of sanity as she hallucinates the blood on her hands. Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as disturbed because she subverts the ideas of religion and the supernatural which were contradictory during the Jacobean era. Rather than fulfilling the audience’s expectations that religion and the supernatural are contradictory, she conjures the idea that they are similar as she says, “look like th’innocent flower but be the serpent under’t.” The auxiliary verb “be” is quite disturbing because she is demanding Macbeth to be a certain way showing her rebellion against stereotypes as women had to obey their husbands. Shakespeare could have been doing this to present her as an outcast, disturbing the audience. Also, the personification of “flower” shows her manipulating him to have a facade of morality but deep down know he is the serpent, presenting her as disturbed because she is seduced by power and uses the worst of people to her advantage. This is because a flower
Macbeth realizes that his biggest flaw isn’t a lack of values, but actually a lack of drive to carry out that terrible deed. Lady Macbeth is quite the opposite of her husband. Because she swore to make the witches prophecy true, she had to denounce her feminine qualities. This just means that she cast aside all her sentimentality, and romanticism.
In the beginning of the play, she has the “desire to harm one's child,” (Jacofsky 1). She says this herself, “I have given suck, and know how tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me; I would, while it was smiling in my face, have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums, and dash’d the brains out.” (Owens 357). Macbeth also has these tendencies. George Gerwig states that “they keep giving themselves, in imagination, to pictures of what might be, if the things which they know are right are ignored.”
This portrays that their murders have caused them to advance to insanity. The guilt consumes her just like Macbeth. Macbeth character growth to progress a sociopath as his actions feed through fear caused by the guilt. He says, “I am in blood \ Stepped in so far that, [if I continue], \ returning were [the same as to continue murder]” (III.
As the Macbeth’s portray the opposite of social constructs and expectations in the play, they eventually fall into their belonged stereotype after Lady Macbeth slowly starts to spiral downhill. Once Macbeth feels as though someone is in the way of him becoming King, he instantly creates a plan to murder them like Lady Macbeth did with Duncan. As they eventually take up each others common behavior, Lady Macbeth drives herself to insanity due to her womanly feelings. “I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon ’t, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep.” , she is seen sleepwalking and participating in strange activities due to the insanity driven from guilt (5.1.4-6).
In the beginning Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth was a ruthless and masculine woman. She showed the audience that, mentally and emotionally, she was stronger than Macbeth. Although as the story started to continue the audience began to see that she was becoming mentally insane. Throughout the story there was also evidence of shakespeare showing the more masculinity you had the more cuel you became.
Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a power hungry and vindictive women, whose character is against the stereotypes of a Jacobean woman. Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a deceptive woman, who uses the fact that she is a woman as a weapon. ‘Why, worthy thane, you do unbend your noble strength to think.’ Lady Macbeth is talking to Macbeth.
It’s no surprise, that Shakespeare’s Macbeth was clearly constructed as a rebellion against femininity roles of the time. During the Elizabethan era, women were raised to believe they were inferior to men since men obtained desired masculine qualities such as strength, and loyalty, whereas women were viewed as figures of hospitality (1; 6; 28-31). Obviously, not being tempted by the luxury of subservient women, William Shakespeare rebuked this twisted belief, applying that women deserve more respect than their kitchen tables.
William Shakespeare portrayed the character Lady Macbeth to be extremely ruthless, malicious and manipulative. Thus, being the reason she could easily convince Macbeth to do her will, yet still put on such a convincing performance in front of those who knew nothing of her and her husband’s actions. Lady Macbeth shows her complexity constantly throughout the story when she shares her view-point on masculinity by demasculinizing her own husband, when she strategically plans the murder of the King Duncan, and finally when she finally goes crazy because of the guilt she possesses for not only her own actions but also turning her own husband into a
There are many people in the world that experience mental problems and therefore affecting their personality. Not everyone though is as bad as Macbeth when it comes to mental deterioration. Macbeth is a very self-centered man and it leads him to change the person he once was. Although it is not seen much in the beginning of Shakespeare's play “The Tragedy of Macbeth”, Macbeth’s mental state deteriorates as the play progresses, which can be seen when he is guilty of murdering King Duncan, being taunted by the ghost of Banquo, and his speech to the witches.
Like men, she has the trait to be gruesome and diabolical in nature. She has determined for herself the course to be pursued and nothing can hinder her. She does not need the prophecy of the witches to urge her. She is aware of her strength and she is resolute in her aim. Knowing Macbeth’s weakness,
Firstly Shakespeare reverses gender roles in the play through expressing each character 's personality. Shakespeare manages to defy conventions through the character Lady Macbeth as he explores the boundaries of what it means to be a “woman.” Her first mental gender transformation occurs after she reads the letter sent to her from Macbeth and hears of King Duncan 's intended visit. In Act 1, Scene 5 she pleads to the spirits, "Come, you spirits. That tend on mortal thoughts.
The women in Macbeth are presented by Shakespeare to be powerful and ambitious which was unlike the typical views during Jacobean times. The playwright portrays Lady Macbeth and the witches to be highly influential to male characters in the play, which again contrasts the contemporary views to that time. Their ambition and power are demonstrated through the perversion of nature. This highlights the evil and immoral side, they possess. Shakespeare, however, presented Lady Macbeth and the witches to be manipulative and cunning, rather than violent like Macbeth was during the play.
Paul Vu Dr. Elizabeth C. Ramírez THTR 475A.03 2 May 2017 Macbeth and Medea: Breaking Expectations Macbeth by William Shakespeare and Medea by Euripides are known for their powerful critiques on the social expectations of women. Women during the time of Elizabethan and Greek theatre were often stereotyped and considered the weaker sex. Men were depicted as strong individuals who supported and protected women. However, both Shakespeare and Euripides broke expectations by portraying strong and iconic female characters in their respective plays. The idea of a strong female character was often unheard of during the time of Elizabethan and Greek Theatre.
Men were supposed to act as strong fighters, while women were locked in the domestic sphere. These gender roles are prominent in the character developments of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. At first, Macbeth is a strong, heroic solider that shows unbounded courage in battle and loyalty to his king. As the play progresses, he becomes cold, ruthless, and miserable. Lady Macbeth takes on a “manly” role, which is surprising because of how patriarchal the society is.
Her purpose was to raise children, take care of the home and not voice strong opinions. Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth’s unique speech and impulsive, obsessive personality in Macbeth to show the opposite. Lady Macbeth breaks the negative stereotypes against women of not voicing strong opinions and being less intelligent than a man, but the effect of breaking these stereotypes is not positive and it leads to her downfall and death.