Representation of Women in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Representation of Women in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

You will present your coursework as a speech; you will also be

expected to hnd in a one-page explanation of the points that you have

included in your speech.

Consider:

v The socio-historical context in, which the play is written.

v How women are portaied in the play and films.

(Lighting, props, sound, costumes)

v Dramatic devices and the effect they have on the way that women are

portrayed.

v The main themes in the play.

v The way in which other characters respond to the women in the play.

Remember to support your points with evidence from the text.

I am going to discuss how women were portrayed in the 16th century by

looking at the story of Macbeth and the two film versions made of it.

William Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in late 1606 or early 1607. Macbeth

is set in the time period it was written in and this was partly in the

Elizabethan ages and partly in the era of King James I of England.

This period of time was known as the Renaissance. Many of the

reactions towards the themes in the play are based upon the

ideas/thoughts and reactions of the themes in real life. By this I

mean that Macbeth is adapted to the Time period it is set in. The

interests and attitudes of people at the time are also represented in

the play.

In the time period in which Macbeth was written witches were believed

to be evil and representatives of the Devil and had supernatural

powers that could bring about evil. If a woman were accused of being a

witch then she would be tortured or burned at the stake. This belief

is also reflected in Macbeth:

Banquo What! ...

... middle of paper ...

...version in

done with a lot of detail and is basically the same as the text, so it

gives the audience a good idea of what Macbeth is about. Plus it also

has a lot more violent and gory scenes, which appeal to teenagers

because they like to watch films with some action or fighting scenes.

I think this is effective because it makes the murder seem more real.

I think Macbeth is more to blame for the murder of king Duncan than

Lady Macbeth. The point that makes him more to blame is he says,

Macbeth My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical…

This shows what he is the first person to bring up the idea of murder.

Plus, no matter how much Lady Macbeth persuaded him to murder the

king, he still had the choice to say that ‘no’ was his final decision

and he obviously let his love get in the way of being a noble person.