William Shakespeare contributed many great plays to the history of literature, two of which include Macbeth and Julius Caesar. Macbeth tells the story of an ambitious lord, Macbeth, becoming corrupted after murdering the previous king and several of his friends. Similarly, in Julius Caesar, the conspirators murder the hero of Rome, Julius Caesar, because of their fear and jealousy of his rising power. The two stories both feature female characters moving the plot along and/or foreshadowing future events. Lady Macbeth, Macbeth’s wife, takes part in the murder of King Duncan and Portia, Brutus’s wife, and Calpurnia, Caesar’s wife, because of their worries for their husbands both tries to confront them in their own way. William Shakespeare structures the women in his play very differently from the women during his time. There are many differences between Lady Macbeth, Calpurnia, and Portia, but at the same time there are also many similarities between the three.
The Lady Macbeth from the beginning of the play seems remarkably similar to Portia in that they’re both strong-willed women ahead of their own time unlike Calpurnia. Lady Macbeth wishes herself to be a man, “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…” (Macbeth 1.5.30-44). Lady Macbeth is very different from the typical woman at the time. Her focus is now set on murdering King Duncan Lady Macbeth’s real personality begins revealing itself through this quote; instead of a kind and loving woman her character seems vile and demonic. It’s clear that she’s determined to make Macbeth’s prophecy come true by any means necessary. Her willingness in this matter is another reason for her str...
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...nly reason was her fear for his safety and well-being. She’s portray as a very kind and caring person; the complete opposite of Lady Macbeth’s ambitious personality. While they’re all great women, Portia and Calpurnia are portray as kind and gentle women while Lady Macbeth is portray as man-like and immoral.
Lady Macbeth, Calpurnia, and Portia are all great female characters from Shakespeare’s plays. The characters all appear in different plays under different settings and situations but they have many similar qualities as well as different qualities. Calpurnia, who has a timid and obedience nature, set her apart from Lady Macbeth and Portia. Lady Macbeth and Portia are very similar in the sense that they’re both great women who lost their sense of reasoning until ultimately committing suicide. They also represent a very big theme throughout society.
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.
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”.
Lady Macbeth’s passion is Macbeth. Her love for him, is something that expands past any form of logic, or reason. this willingness to see Macbeth to his fullest potential, knows no bounds; she would have : “dashed the brains out” of her son,and will manipulate Macbeth until he reaches the level of success that she deems him worthy of. This is her greatest flaw: She will not let Macbeth think for himself, she is always controlling him. When he
Macbeth's wife, Lady Macbeth, is one of the most frightening and powerful female character in the play. Both of them are trying to seek the throne and become king and queen.
Lady Macbeth’s atypical and complex character directly challenged the archetypal principles and beliefs of the Jacobean era which as a result, drew major fascination through the ages. Lady Macbeth was Shakespeare’s device to not only stimulate audience’s emotions, but to also provide historical context and elicit dominant themes which reflected Jacobean society. Her ambiguous character and remarkable influences in the play raised a lot of controversy and fascination amongst both modern and Jacobean audiences. She can either be seen as linked to the witches in a feminist bid to overthrow the balance of power, or as a representation of the evil side of Macbeth. Nevertheless, it was her distinct characteristics and actions which ultimately catalysed the chain of conflicts of the play. Again, this reinforces her important role in the play.
A common similarity in Shakespearean plays is the main character either being an tragic villain or tragic hero. In Macbeth and Hamlet both villains Claudius and Macbeth are killers who are seeking power. William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet and it is about a king’s son seeking the revenge of his father's wrongful death by his own brother Claudius. He also wrote Macbeth which is about a power hungry warrior who becomes king by his corruption and ambition. King Claudus and King Macbeth both are similar in many ways but yet have many differences with set them apart but in the end bring them together by an common action to gain power.
Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare’s Macbeth is well known to be a strong, independent character. She proved her strength multiple times throughout the play. But, since she is a woman, her character has a certain weakness which is recognized by the other characters in the play, and especially herself. Given this limitation, many people perceive her to be simply a women with a lot of potential that never truly is able to flourish. On the contrary, she is a key part in the play. Without her, many of the events of the story wouldn’t have taken place. Given her gender, many people won’t be able to realize how large of an influence Lady Macbeth had over Macbeth and the other characters. Lady Macbeth was the “man” in her relationship, showing the strength
The play, Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, is the story of a fallen hero, Macbeth. Macbeth is a well known and admired noble all throughout Scotland, but one day due to a prophecy bestowed upon him, his ideals grow shrewd and his needs more ambitious, he is accompanied by his wife, also known as Lady Macbeth, who urges and fans his greed for his personal gain. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth share many of the same characteristics when they succumb into complete darkness and when dealing with their guilt. The two characters express their selfish needs and grief through a series of haunting plans and hallucinations.
In each of his plays the women are the same, with their own little quirks, but overall they all portray a woman that isn't totally fitting to the elizabethan stereotype. Shakespeare was clearly way ahead of his time as a writer. The uncommon characteristics that he gave his women, perfectly describe women today.
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.
Gender is evidently out of its traditional order within the play, and thus the three chosen exemplar characters to showcase this are Lady Macbeth, the Witches, and Macbeth. In saying this, Lady Macbeth is a clear example of how the traditional characteristics of a woman are non-existent as they are taken over by masculinity and strength. The witches challenge their womanhood due to the power they hold and attributes they have, all while Macbeth challenges his gender as he shows femininity through weakness and fretfulness.
In the play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth would be considered a woman with very few scruples. However, I see her as a woman who is a lot like her husband, Macbeth. She was the same as Macbeth. They were both fiendish people with an overwhelming sense of vaulting ambition. I would even go as far as saying that Lady Macbeth was the one with a greater sense of ambition than Macbeth because she lacked what Macbeth did not. She lacked scruples. It was Lady Macbeth’s scrupulous ambition that led Macbeth to his seat upon the royal throne of Scotland.
In the play, Macbeth, the power of a woman is a strong force to be reckoned with. Many times in the play, the female characters have proven their equality with any man. From the witches to Lady Macbeth, these characters show their power either in words or in actions. The women, in the play Macbeth, contradict the roles set by society in 1606. Women who over stepped their boundaries were considered a threat to the people and were punished severely. It was shocking to the public to see such masculine female characters in Macbeth.
In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, the role of women is quite significant. Although there are only three women throughout the play, Jessica, Nerissa, and Portia, all play a role that affects the outcome of the play. Portia, Jessica, and Nerissa are all very significant characters from this time period. The three women display characteristics of bravery, independence, and intelligence.
From the expansion days of Ancient Rome to the fall of the Roman Empire, women have always succumbed to living subjacent to the status of their omnipotent and dominant male figures. After leaving her childhood home and the rule of her father, a young Roman girl would then be coerced into the dominion of her husband, often taking a plethora of roles, ranging from lover, caretaker, and best friend. It is often lightheartedly stated that, “Behind every great man is an even greater woman,” and William Shakespeare exemplifies this concept beautifully in Julius Caesar, in which he effectively used the spouses of the two main characters to add more depth, drama, and literary elements to the play, bringing it to life. Although the only two female characters in Julius Caesar, Portia and Calpurnia do not play a pivotal role in the overall plot of the story, their presence is vital in illuminating and developing the characters of their husbands, Brutus and Caesar. What they reveal about their husbands leads the reader to infer that Portia is the more admirable and redeeming character.