Female’s Influence Over People

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Female’s Influence over People

Macbeth and The Crucible both portray strong female protagonists that have a lot of power over the other characters of the plays. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible the female protagonists use equivocation, deception and fear to influence the minds of all the other characters in both plays. The influence of these women over especially the men leads the males into doing miserable, unforgettable and also unforgiveable deeds.

Equivocation is the intention to mislead, and misleading people is like a theme in the play Macbeth. It is because of the witches, who are technically protagonists, that Macbeth got the idea that he will become king of Scotland. “All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter.”(Shakespeare.1.2.48). The witches initiate the murder of Duncan in Macbeth’s mind, and then he wrote a letter to Lady Macbeth, who plays with his manhood so that he can carry out the murder. “Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour.” (Shakespeare.1.7.39-40). Another example of equivocation is when Macbeth asks the witches for the three apparitions of who stands in his way of being king safely, “Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth. Beware Macduff, beware the Thane of Fife. Dismiss me Enough.” (Shakespeare.4.1.70-71) The other two apparitions told Macbeth not to be afraid until a man who is not born of woman approaches him and he shouldn’t be afraid until Birnam Wood uproots itself and moves towards high Dunsinane Hill. These three apparitions misleads Macbeth into believing that he is safe because technically every man is born of a woman and Birnam Wood moving to High Dunsinane Hill is not possible. Equivocation plays very important roles in Macbeth and The Crucible.

The C...

... middle of paper ...

...o save her, and, stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, he draw a needle out.” (Miller 74) This is evident of fear because before that Mary Warren made a poppet and stuck a needle into the belly of the poppet. This poppet was made in front of Abigail Williams and so it is possible that she stuck that needle into herself just to prove that Elizabeth Proctor was a witch. Fear is very important because it is used by both Abigail Williams and Lady Macbeth to exert power into other characters of the play.

Equivocation, deception and fear play very important roles in the characters of the women to influence many of the other characters of the play. The topic used was about female protagonists exerting power over the other characters and all three points do talk about the ways and means used to influence the other main characters in both the plays.

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