Macbeth Essay

Shakespeare’s famous play, Macbeth, is the story of a man named Macbeth who kills the present king of Scotland, Duncan, in order to become the king, and the aftermath of that event. Within Macbeth, very few female characters are introduced. The first female characters are the three witches, who prophecize the whole play, and then Lady Macbeth, the wife of Macbeth and the most prominent female character in the play. Both the witches and Lady Macbeth lead Macbeth to kill Duncan, but once he does, they find themselves unable to live with the consequences. Shakespeare purposefully wrote the main female characters in this derogatory way so as to assert the idea that women cause ambition, ambition is bad, and therefore, women are bad, but then shows that once the women cause bad things to happen, they can’t deal with them. In Macbeth, Shakespeare documents his belief that women are not only deceitful and cause deadly ambition, but cannot withstand the ramifications of that ambition once they come to pass. Shakespeare argues through Macbeth that ambition is evil and women are the cause of ambition, so they must be evil as well. The witches spawn the idea of ambition in Macbeth's mind, Lady Macbeth reasserts that idea, and the ambition leads to the downfall of both Macbeth and the kingdom as a whole. The witches, the first of very few women that appear in the play, plant the idea or at least cement it in Macbeth's head that he is meant to be king of Scotland. They first refer to him as the "Thane of Glamis", something that is already true, then predict two achievements which he has not experienced yet, calling him "Thane of Cawdor" and then saying he will "be king hereafter" (1.3.50-53). When the second statement comes true and Macbeth b... ... middle of paper ... ... only way she can eventually get away from the murder she committed. She is obsessed with her crimes because Shakespeare wants her to suffer for leading Macbeth astray, and also so show that when women make a mess, they don't know how to clean it up. Men conclude the play, solving all the problems that women have created: Macduff slays Macbeth, Malcolm becomes king, and Fleance is set to be next in line for the throne if the witches' prophecy continues to unfold. Shakespeare has the men resolve the issue of ambition because he believes women are unequipped to deal with their own problems. Perhaps he has been scorned by a woman, or perhaps this is just how he sees members of the female gender, but he deliberately defines the actions of the women in his play in order to show that women are weak, feeble individuals who lose all composure when their actions lead to ruin.