Lady Macbeth By William Shakespeare

Eklavya Sehrawat ENG3UO Ms. Cheney April 27 2015 Exploring Gender Roles In Shakespeare’s Macbeth Although at the time of Shakespeare women were portrayed as lesser beings, Shakespeare still manages to portray them as strong and independent women. Throughout history stereotypes have not only decided the fate of men and women, but they have also decided how they act. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth gender roles are constantly challenged and reversed to give the reader a different perspective of the 17th century.

Lady Macbeth is very pretentious, but she tries to act like she is a decent person. She is the person that will do anything to get what she wants; in this case she ends up killing a person just to get what she believes is Macbeth’s. In the play she plans what she wishes to happen when she says “Come thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell. That my keen knife see not the wound it make.” She’s planning to kill King Duncan so her husband can become king. When you read the play you see that she everything she is planning and thinking with Macbeth, Lady Macbeth has done nothing but ridicule Macbeth for being a “coward” and not wanting to kill Duncan, but as soon as Lady Macbeth steps in to kill Duncan she is constantly terrified

In Shakespare’s play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s destiny is formed by her own actions through mind and free-will. In act I, Lady Macbeth convinces her husband to murder Duncan, even though Macbeth was strongly against it. Lady Macbeth is very successful at persuading him to go against his better judgment. She entirely changes the stereotype of women being kind and caring in the first act. After Macbeth writes home telling of his murderous plans, Lady Macbeth begins talking to evil spirits. Because women often lack the ruthlessness to kill someone, Lady Macbeth asks the spirits to make her male. One of the most vivid descriptions of Lady Macbeth’s wickedness is directly after Macbeth announces to her he does not want to kill Duncan. This speech symbolizes Lady Macbeth’s evilness. She is ruthless, because of her evil accounts for the murders that occur throughout the play. Lady Macbeth convinces her husband to commit murders that will make them king

Lady Macbeth is essentially an evil woman. She condones the death of innocent people and even wishes she were a man so she could commit murder herself. The idea to murder King Duncan was thought of by no other than Lady Macbeth,

Lady Macbeth- the malicious mastermind, and the second driving force behind the murders done by Macbeth, had believed that by portraying a man’s ways, she would attain power-for her and her husband, and gain whatever they needed without remorse or sorrow. Lady Macbeth urges Macbeth to frame two guards by getting them intoxicated and even prepares the murder scene for Macbeth to take King Duncan's life. Macbeth even questions his loyalty and righteousness in this moment by saying, “But in these cases, we still have judgment here…bloody instructions…return to plague the inventor” and . . .” He is here in double trust; first as I am his kinsman and his subject, strong both against the deed; then as his host” (I.VII.7-14). This just

Lady Macbeth is one of the only women in the story, besides the witches who are really expanded upon. Throughout the story you really find out how manipulative she is. She is all but the only reason that Macbeth killed the king. She was the spark that lit the fire but she was also the wood that kept the fire burning. But its all started when she was told by Macbeth that Malcolm was to become the next king instead of him or his children. This drove her to manipulate Macbeth and to force his hand to kill the king. Lady Macbeth was so ambitious that if she had not been a woman or the fact that duncan looked like her father she would have killed him with her own hand and not Macbeth. She manipulated him by twisting his emotions and calling him less of a

The women figure is often perceived as passionate and loving but it was used as a sign of trouble, jealousy, and evilness in old literature pieces such as the Homer’s Odyssey and Shakespeare’s Macbeth, where the storylines couldn’t take places without the intervention of a female character. Both pieces of literature share the appearance of intriguing actions of a female character more than once in the plot. In the Odyssey, we have the female appearance that make an impact to the story three time: Helen of Troy (cause of the 10-year long war), Calypso (kept Odysseus captive on an island for 7 years) and his wife Penelope (Odysseus longed for her, men wanted to marry forcefully to take over Odysseus castle). In Macbeth on the other hand we

Shakespeare tragic hero; Macbeth is undoubtedly conveyed as one of literatures greatest fallen heroes. Initially presented as an admirable hero, he self destructs from external and internal forces. The witches ignited Macbeth’s ambition and temptations prove too strong for the one admired war hero, whilst Lady Macbeth prays up on his exceptional being of vaulting ambition. Throughout the essay, the factors influence Macbeth’s downfall will be explored.

Throughout the years, the typical stereotypes of womanhood and femininity have significantly innovated for the better. The infamous Shakespeare play, The Tragedy of Macbeth, viewed women much differently than what the era itself did. This showed greatly through the character, Lady Macbeth, who completely destroyed those stereotypes. She was not only independent, but she also portrayed the utmost amount of confidence. Lady Macbeth was in complete control of her relationship with Macbeth and was highly respected by others around her.

Immediately when we meet Lady Macbeth through a dialogue between her husband, Macbeth, we realize that there is a vagueness in gender roles. Macbeth, who was introduced as a violent and valiant man, is hesitant about carrying out a terrible deed, which happens to be murdering the king of Scotland. Whereas women are supposed to be innocent and amicable, Lady Macbeth is shown as a stronger and much more power

Lady Macbeth can be said to be one of Shakespeare's most famous and frightening female characters. She fulfills her role among the nobility and is well respected, like Macbeth. She is loving, yet very determined that her husband will be king. At the beginning of the play, when she is first seen, she is already plotting the murder of Duncan, showing more strength, ruthlessness, and ambition than Macbeth. She lusts after power and position and then pressures her husband into killing Duncan. Upon receiving the letter with the witches' prophecies from her husband, she begins to think and knowing that Macbeth lacks the courage for something like this, she calls upon the forces of evil to help her do what must be

In Macbeth, one of the most tragic and well known plays, William Shakespeare changes women’s part in society. During this time period, women are known to be both mentally and physically weaker than men. Women are called to be only housewives. Shakespeare reflected the image of women in society by giving the men bigger leads in his plays. Only in a few of Shakespeare's plays did he give women strong leading roles. Macbeth is one of the few plays where women play a more powerful role than the men. In Macbeth, he gives the women unusual traits like manipulation and betrayal. In William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, women like Lady Macbeth , the trio witches, and Lady Macduff portray non-feminine traits.

At the very beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is provoked by the letter she receives by Macbeth and starts plotting the murder of Duncan. She also wishes she were a man such that she could commit the murder all by herself saying so in Act 1 Scene 5, “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 1.5.36-52). She appeals to these spirits to remove all aspects of her femininity and seeks to gain power through the prophecy of the witches. Her fear about the ability of her husband to commit the murder is subdued in her designated gender. Lady Macbeth manages her feminine power through her sensuality and pretended weakness through her fainting streak at the notice of Duncan’s death. Manipulation, usually through sexuality is often depicted as the source of women’s power still Lady Macbeth uses this power of hers to commit murder, a masculine demonstration of power. Lady Macbeth in her soliloquy about the planning of Duncan’s death refers to her husband as an individual who plays honestly and does not engage in wrongdoing.

Shakespeare in his tragedy Macbeth has a very limited assortment of women characters. In fact, there is only one who has a sizeable role - Lady Macbeth; the other, Lady Macduff, makes only a brief appearance, and the witchesare questionable as females.

    When one considers Shakespeare’s female characters, one has to remember that the plays were written in a time when women were considered weak-minded creatures who were apt to make bad choices if given the freedom.  Shakespeare, for the most