Macbeth as a Fiend-Like Queen in William Shakespeare's Play

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Macbeth as a Fiend-Like Queen in William Shakespeare's Play

The play Macbeth was written in the 17th Century when

a typical woman of the Jacobean period looked up to her husband. She

would be expected to dedicate her life towards looking after her

husband and children. She would be dominated by him and her husband

would be the leading figure of the household so she would also be

submissive and obedient. In “Macbeth” Lady Macduff represents this

figure.

Lady Macbeth however is the antithesis of Lady Macduff as Lady Macbeth

is dominant over her husband, also she is strong, demanding and

unquestionably manly. In the Jacobean period this would have scared

the audience as they would see this as inhuman in a woman.

Even though Lady Macbeth is shown as an unusual person in the play it

starts off with Macbeth writing a letter to her and in this Macbeth

shows his love towards her. The fact that Macbeth has written a letter

for Lady Macbeth rather than waiting to see her shows that he loves

her deeply.

Macbeth is possessive in that he calls Lady Macbeth

“my”, Macbeth describes Lady

Macbeth using superlatives “my dearest” showing that there is no other

person who is a dear to him, he then uses the word partner which shows

that he’s sees it as an equal partnership where no-one is dominant.

Their relationship is sharing, trusting and totally open with good

communication. He finishes the phrase off with the word greatness

which shows his respect for her “my dearest partner of greatness”.

Although Lady Macbeth has spoken as if her relationship between

herself and Macbeth is on equal groundin...

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Lady Macbeths earlier actions of praying to darkness is a contrast to

her current actions as she walks around with a candle as she is scared

that when she dies she will go to hell, and she is willing to try

anything to prevent this. Lady Macbeth realises the only answer to her

problem is death as she is insane and there is no going back on what

she has done.

My conclusion is that whether you feel sorry for Lady Macbeth towards

the end of the play or not, she is not fiend like. Although she is not

fiend like she is wrapped up in her own scheme which has no turning

back and only gets worse and worse making her appear fiend like. The

audience would also realise that the moral of the story is not to be

greedy as it is greed that makes Macbeth unhappy and also takes Lady

Macbeths humble yet happy life away.

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