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Back in the day, women were always classified as passive and frail. However, William Shakespeare opposes this stereotype by certain female characters. In Shakespeare’s tragedy “Macbeth,” Shakespeare depicts Lady Macbeth as a strong female character who persuades her husband to do many challenging and wicked tasks. Lady Macbeth is categorized as a person who is greedy and is willing to do anything to gain power and status. It all seemed to be going well until it became karma to her. The things that she once thought were a great plan in order to gain the throne eventually hunts her. Throughout the whole calamity, Lady Macbeth was characterized as greedy, persuasive and crazy all in which leads to her down fall.
Lady Macbeth is greedy. Lady Macbeth portrays this trait because with every thought of Macbeth she is always there to make sure he goes through with it. It was not all that she was supportive but more of greedy. She wanted it just as bad as Macbeth wanted to be king. In order to get what she wanted, she knew that she would have to be the drive behind Macbeth.
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Lady Macbeth depicts this trait when she immediately starts to plot to become a queen. She quickly schemes after receiving the news about what the witches say to Macbeth. Lady Macbeth states in (Act I Scene v) “O, never shall sun that morrow see!” In this quote, she says that Duncan will not be able to see daylight after my husband kills him tonight. Lady Macbeth shows the persuasive trait when she persuades her husband to kill king Duncan. To get her demand acknowledged, she questions Macbeth’s manhood In (Act I Scene vii) “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 plucked my nipple from his boneless
Macbeth rejects conformation to traditional gender roles in its portrayal of Lady Macbeth’s relationship with her husband, her morals and their effect on her actions, and her hunger for power. Her regard for Macbeth is one of low respect and beratement, an uncommon and most likely socially unacceptable attitude for a wife to have towards her spouse at the time. She often ignores morality and acts for the benefit of her husband, and subsequently herself. She is also very power-hungry and lets nothing stand in the way of her success. Lady Macbeth was a character which challenged expectations of women and feminism when it was written in the seventeenth century.
Lady Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s most famous and frightening female characters. As she is Macbeth’s wife, her role is significant in his rise and fall from royalty. She is Macbeth’s other half. During Shakespearean times, women were regarded as weak insignificant beings that were there to give birth and look beautiful. They were not thought to be as intelligent or equal to men. Though in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is the highest influence in Macbeth’s life. Her role was so large; in fact, that she uses her position to gain power, stay strong enough to support her unstable Lord, and fails miserably while their relationship falls apart. Everything about Lady Macbeth is enough to create the perfect villain because of her ability to manipulate everyone around her. It appears that even she can’t resist the perfect crime.
Her comparison between him and the milk of human kindness infers that Macbeth is kind and compassionate. Lady Macbeth believes due to Macbeth’s nature, he will not have the determination to go along with the plan and its consequences. The way in which Lady Macbeth speaks is ironic seeing as Lady Macbeth is a woman and she is calling Macbeth a coward and criticizing his role as a man. In cultural stereotypes, men were known to have control over the women by making all the decisions for the household without any different perspectives. Lady Macbeth seems to embody these male-like characteristics.
In general, it could be said that Lady Macbeth takes advantage of her femininity and uses it and her frail image to manipulate the situation to suit her purposes. In Act 1 Scene 7, Lady Macbeth ‘bullies’ her husband by doubting his masculinity and provoking a response. She called Macbeth “afraid” and a “coward”. I am inclined to think that Lady Macbeth chose these words as Macbeth values his courage and fierce nature as it has positioned him highly in society. It is possible that Macbeth’s greatest vulnerability is his love for Lady Macbeth, and that enables her to exploit his love for power.
During the Elizabethan era, a woman did not have any say in the relationship with her husband, but Shakespeare’s Macbeth changes this accepted theory. Lady Macbeth is a woman ahead of her time; she is caught between today’s ambitious, powerful woman and a fragile, powerless creature of the Elizabethan era. At the beginning of this tragedy, she is vicious, overly ambitious, without conscience, and willing to do whatever it takes to get what she wants. As Macbeth becomes less dependent on his wife, Lady Macbeth loses control of her husband, but mostly of herself. She is so wrapped up in the greedy world Shakespeare creates that she fails to consider the consequences of her actions more realistically. Lady Macbeth lives as if she is a woman ahead of her tiime, but she dies like she is from the “golden age of drama”.
“When you first do it, then you were a man, And to be more than what you were, you would, be so much more the man” (I. VII, 54-56). After struggling with the thought of killing Duncan, Macbeth is reprimanded by Lady Macbeth for his lack of courage. She informs him that killing the king will make him a man, insinuating that he isn’t a man if he doesn’t go through with the murder. This develops Lady Macbeth as a merciless, nasty, and selfish woman. She will say, or do anything to get what she desires, even if it means harming others.
Initially, when her character is introduced, she displays her masculine traits with complete disregard for any form of femininity. She commands the heavens in these lines, ”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.”(1.5.30-33). In this, Lady Macbeth sheds any attachment she has to her natural embodiment as a woman, and asks the supernatural to help her in her quest to power. It is clearly shown that Lady Macbeth yearns to achieve ambitions that weren’t considered womanly in the time period that this play is set in. As a consequence, she pushes her husband to fulfill her horrendous dreams, because she knows that she will not be affected if Macbeth fails to execute his plans. If Macbeth gets caught, then she remains blameless, and if he doesn’t, she becomes a queen. Either way she doesn’t get hurt. Nonetheless, Lady Macbeth hides another aspiration, one which is evidenced from her humane actions. As a loyal companion to Macbeth, Lady Macbeth wants to ensure that her husband achieves his dream, to be king, at any cost, even if that means sacrificing her femininity and humanity. Generally speaking, this unique perspective on Lady Macbeth shows that her demeaning of Macbeth’s masculinity is actually a display of her true feminine traits; to always support her husband regardless of the price. Lady
Macbeth shows how greed and ambition can bring down a person as well as others and how the changes of power occur because of loyalty and betrayal. Macbeth is the play’s main unhappy character. The play tells of Macbeth's greedy thirst for power is a dangerous trait.
Shakespeare, one of the most famous play writers in history, wrote Macbeth in 1606. Many women were not allowed to perform in plays during that time period; however, Shakespeare did have very few females act out roles in his play (Shakespeare: Sample). Shakespeare viewed his women as strong-willed individuals (“Macbeth.” 227 ) when in reality they were often gone unrecognized (Women in Anglo). The character, Lady Macbeth, was a frightening, ambitious woman. Lady Macbeth often wished to “unsex herself” to carry out the killing of King Duncan on her own as her husband showed no manly characteristics to do it. Women during the Anglo-Saxon time period however, were way different then the way Shakespeare viewed his women during his time period.
While speaking to herself, Lady Macbeth contemplates how she will convince Macbeth to agree to kill King Duncan. She urges Macbeth to hurry home so that she can “pour [her] spirits in [his] ear/And chastise with the valor of [her] tongue” (1.5.29-30). Lady Macbeth implies that her speech is honorable and just, and that she will be able to hold persuasive power over Macbeth and use it to their collective advantage in their rise to power. Her confidence in both the high caliber of her words and being able to convince Macbeth to follow through with her plan underscores her cruel ability to lure someone to murder another, as well as her bold resolve to successfully murder Duncan. Later, after a messenger arrives and tells Lady Macbeth that King Duncan will be arriving soon at the castle, she speaks of Duncan’s foreboding future; a “the fatal entrance…under [her] battlements” (Act, Page number, Line). The tone of finality in which Lady Macbeth describes the king’s arrival implies not only that Lady Macbeth already has full confidence that her deadly scheme will succeed,but also in the case that her strategic plan fails, she will persevere to ensure that Duncan does not leave her castle walls alive. Lastly, at the conclusion of her soliloquy, Lady Macbeth claims once she sees Macbeth that she “feel(s) now/The future in the instant” (1.6.64-65).
Throughout history women have fought for the same rights of men. In the time of William Shakespeare they were seen in society as weak and vulnerable. They were seen to be good, caring and not as powerful as men. Men were the superior and ruled the land. Shakespeare has taken the stereotypical image of the women of the time and turned it on its head in ‘Macbeth’. Lady Macbeth is shown as a very powerful, strong woman. She has an evil about her that Shakespeare has used to make ‘Macbeth’ a supernatural play. Women were seen to be good and not as powerful as men, in ‘Macbeth’ Lady Macbeth is the dominate character and commands and persuades Macbeth to commit the murders and crimes that he does.
...that women were branded as submissive, weak and inferior by the normal beliefs of people of this time period. Prominently, women were perceived as missing the facility to be malicious and brutal. Macbeth is very hesitant and lacks the ambition to do such an evil deed like killing king Duncan in order to seize the throne, however, Lady Macbeth is just the opposite. She is extremely different from other women during this time due to the fact that she is very brave and ambitious, willing to do anything she can to see her and her husband succeed.
When Macbeth had written his wife a letter about the prophecy of the Witches, she transforms herself into a masculine role because she feels her strong devotion will help push her husband towards his awaiting destiny. “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.” (Act I,Scene 5 30-33). Lady Macbeth blatantly makes it known that she is the dominant force in the marriage and over her husband, Macbeth, which was not considered as one of the stereotypical social norms expected upon women in the Elizabethan era. As an example, when Macbeth was too hesitant about Duncan’s arrival to their castle, Lady Macbeth declared to her husband that he should step aside and she would take it upon herself to take care of everything.
Lady Macbeth is the first to strategize a way to kill Duncan. As a character foil to Macbeth she juxtaposes their possession of guilt and ruthlessness, which creates irony and excitement to the play. Originally, she is very power hungry and wants to utilize her husband’s position in status to become queen. Macbeth objects to the plan to kill Duncan because he believes Duncan is Macbeth’s kinsman, host, and an overall virtuous ruler (Act. 1 Scene. 7) and thus feels very guilty for taking advantage of Duncan’s trusting quality towards the Macbeth family. She refers to Macbeth as weak and rebukes his manhood (Act 1. Scene 7.) . As the play progresses, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have a character role reversal of their possession of guilt and ruthlessness. The character foil is extant, however Macbeth’s ruthlessness overcomes his guilt, and Lady Macbeth’s guilt vanquishes her drive for power. In addition to an alteration in character foils, Shakespeare introduces situational irony because now Lady Macbeth succumbs to the weakness Macbeth once possessed and Macbeth is the one who is formidable and ambitious. Macbeth’s ability to transcend his guilt exemplifies his struggle for power and reinforces the theme of evil ambition because Macbeth is able to secure the throne and power only by mass
Shakespeare is known for strong male heroes, but they are not laying around in this play, not that Macbeth is full of strong female heroines, either. The women in the play, Lady Macbeth and the witches have very uncommon gender belief, and act as inhumane as the men. While the men engage in direct violence, the women use manipulation to achieve their desires. As Lady Macbeth impels Macbeth to kill King Duncan, she indicated that she must take on some sort of masculine characteristic in order to process the murder. “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.” (i v 31-34) This speech is made after she reads Macbeth’s letter. Macbeth, she has shown her desire to lose her feminine qualities and gain masculine ones. Lady Macbeth's seizure of the dominant role in the Macbeth's marriage, on many occasions, she rules her husband and dictates his actions. Her speeches in the first part of the book give the readers a clear impression. “You shall put this night’s great business into my dispatch, which shall […] gi...