Similarities Between Macbeth And Twelfth Night

Instead of Macbeth being Thane of Glamis, he is a high-class chef of a well-renowned restaurant in the middle of London. The environment in Shakespeare Retold has changed from a Shakespearean era to the 21st century. Both Macbeth and Joe have high positions that will eventually lead to their downfall. Both the play and the film emphasize on the same values and they demonstrate how ambition and greed drive a human to their insanity and madness. For example, in Shakespeare Retold, Joe was introduced as a kind, jovial person who as a chef himself taught his fellow cooks how to properly make food. His desire to secure his throne, in this case, the main chef, made him disoriented and was breaking plates, and burning food, something he wouldn't do before. The loving aura changed and it was just filled with chaos, in which the environment was not a place where his workers wanted to be. The change of scenery from the kitchen to an ominous night was effective in such that viewers could see that it meant something bad was about to happened. Lastly, at the end of the film, the kitchen in a highly renowned restaurant was not as luminous as before. The lights were turned off by Joe, and this is where we could see that he was beginning to shut himself down.

While many will agree that Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is critically acclaimed to be one of the most entertaining and well-liked pieces that he has written, there tends to be a discrepancy over how the characters in the play are portrayed when it comes to the importance of gender roles. After reading James C Bulman’s article over the Globe’s more recent performance of Twelfth Night and Shakespeare’s original written version, I realized that there are many ways that this famous piece has been portrayed and each has its own pros and cons.

With social and cultural stereotypes in this era, men were viewed as more powerful while women were portrayed as weak. William Shakespeare tries to interpret the roles between genders by having characters of the opposite sex. In the play Macbeth, William Shakespeare uses rhetorical devices to demonstrate Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s switch in traditional gender roles, which arise from the consequences for each character’s actions and speech.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare brings about one of the most controversial topic of the gender portrayal in a play. During Shakespearean times, women were considered as the weaker sex, physically and emotionally. On the other hand, men were seen as the dominant sex that is expected to be the head of their households and a strong figure. Unlike this stereotypical representation of men and women, Shakespeare introduces the reversal of gender roles in his play. Shakespeare’s portrayal of the relationship and characteristics of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth diverged from the stereotypical representation of both men and women. The author, William Shakespeare’s use of reverse gender roles which contradicted with the traditional gender roles, is what

William Shakespeare’s tragedy “Macbeth” completely challenges the idea of traditional gender roles and social norms during the renaissance period. The male characters have many feminine traits while the female characters have many more masculine and manlier traits. This was going entirely against the stereotypical outlook of the roles you’re supposed to play as your gender during that time of history. During the renaissance period women were only expected to clean, cook, and to have babies. Men on the other hand were typically expected to work hard and to provide for the home. Socially women didn’t have power or respect and men were the ones who were supposed to be brave and tough at the best of times and the worst of times. That idea is

William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night as a Feminist Play The play Twelfth Night was written in the Elizabethan days, near the end of the ruling of Queen Elizabeth I. It was also during The Renaissance, which is also the rebirth of learning, which this play was born. It was a period of change, questioning and vitality.

“Leaders become great, not because of their power but because of their ability to empower others,” (John Maxwell). Dorothy and Macbeth are two characters in different pieces of fictional literature. Their method for solving problems is very much alike. They both reject their obstacles and display the same fault, pride. Macbeth puts all of himself into his pride and wanting for power, that in the end, he loses the crown and everything that he once loved. However, even though Dorothy has a sense of pride as well she is able to shift paths and gradually conquer her flaw by being there for a friend who before abandoned her, and give that same friend hope in a once thought of a hopeless situation. And by giving her friend a hand to hold she

Lady Macbeth understands Macbeth’s lust for the throne, and lusts for it herself. She also understands his ambition, but feels that her husband might regret and decide against killing Duncan to steal his throne, as she regards to Macbeth as “full o’ the milk of human kindness” (1.5.4). Since Lady Macbeth fears that Macbeth would turn against her and not go through with the plan, she decides that it must be up to her to get it done correctly. She asks that only the “direst cruelty” (1.5.33) fill her, as she gathers everything that is evil to her in order to murder Duncan. Even though Macbeth was hesitant over the idea of murdering Duncan, his wife convinces him that acting on his impulse of killing Duncan is the right thing to do. This shown when Macbeth starts to second guess the thought of murdering his king, and that it should not be done. However, his wife verbally harasses him into agreeing. Lady Macbeth questions his love for her, questions his masculinity, and criticizes his desire to be king by saying, “When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more the man” (1.5.49-51). As his successfully offends him, he decides that he needs to prove his manhood, his love of his wife, and his ambition to be king, he agrees to murder Duncan.

As there is already a King in power, Lady Macbeth and her husband face a difficult decision. In order for Macbeth to be King, the reigning King Duncan would have to die. Lady Macbeth is a kind and gentle women but when she is faced with the temptation of a higher power she turns to darkness to help her commit this sin(quote about de womanizing her). Leading up to the murder of King Duncan, Lady Macbeth doesn't believe that Macbeth is strong enough and doubts his ability to be a man and take charge. (quote about milk of human kindness). Her doubt about her husband stays with her throughout the play and is what constantly drives a wedge between their relationship. What once was a marriage full of love, now is filled with manipulation and

Not only does this suggest that he regards her as his equal, but also by treating Lady Macbeth in this manner, he is allowing her to have the opportunity to hold more power as his wife. After reading Macbeth’s letter regarding the witches’ prophecy and King Duncan’s impending visit to their castle, the desire for Lady Macbeth to lose her feminine qualities and gain masculine ones is indicated throughout the text. ‘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.’ The kind Lady Macbeth becomes a scheming and treacherous woman who craves power and authority. There is a disruption in the traditional order of gender roles and it is evident that there is a role reversal between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth's usurpation of the dominant role in the Macbeth's marriage is highlighted throughout many occasions. She rules her husband and dictates his actions as she emasculates him to into taking action and killing Duncan so he can be ‘crown’d withal’ using the ‘valour of tongue’. At the end of the play the madly insane Lady Macbeth and wishes for things to return to how they were before. This leaves Macbeth to hold all the power, and make decisions on his own without the influence of Lady Macbeth. The power, in which their titles entail, had a horrible effect on the outcome of their

In the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth’s mindset is all for money and power. Once she hears the prophecies shared by the witches she goes into full tyrant mode. She has these thoughts of her being queen, and her being on top, that brings great pleasure to herself. These thoughts then become commands and actions. She starts to try and

The struggle for power is encountered through the interactions between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. When initially introduced to the character of Lady Macbeth, she reads a letter addressed to her from Macbeth in which he states his plans to kill King Duncan and assume the throne. Lady Macbeth responds with a speech signifying her agreeance and calls for the strength to carry on with the plan: “Come, you spirits/ That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,/ And fill me from the crown to the top-full/ of direst cruelty” (1.5.47-50). Here, she is denouncing her femininity to take on a more masculine role and to be filled with nothing but motivation for the cruel crime. Shakespeare uses this scene to foreshadow the event in which the crime will be committed. While Macbeth begins to have second thoughts and uneasiness towards the situation, Lady Macbeth tells him: “What beast was ’t,/ then, / That made you break this enterprise to me?/ When you durst do it, then you were a man;/ And to be more than what you were, you would/ Be so much more the man” (1.7.53-58). Lady Macbeth is emasculating her husband her by questioning his ability to be a man and how he hesitates to make the move towards power while she is confident in her decision. Shakespeare makes a choice to have a woman be the one to urge the death of Duncan to show the reversal of gender roles and to expose Lady Macbeth’s character. The playwright

In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Shakespeare displays acts of violence and ferocity to distract the miserable life everyone was living in England. Macbeth is a man who becomes hungry for power and desires to take control by murdering everyone who gets in his way of kingship. Macbeth discovers, from a prophecy given to him by three witches, that he will become king. When Macbeth's ambition vanquishes his moral judgement, he gruesomely slaughters the current king and fulfils the prophecy.

Lady Macbeth plays the role that convinces Macbeth to carry out murder and pushes his blind ambition to become king for her own self want of being queen and gain power in the hierarchy. “We fail!, But screw your courage to the sticking-place, And we'll not fail....”, this supports this idea of her controlling the situation and making Macbeth do things that he did not want to do, the evil act she forced upon macbeth will allow her to step up (Document B).

As soon as she was told there was a chance for power in her future she went crazy, scheming up plans to take the throne. She craves power and pushes her husband to kill for it. Her mind was constantly thinking about power, “This nights great business into my dispatch, which shall to all our nights and days to come Give solely sovereign sway masterdom” (1.5.80-83). Lady Macbeth will do anything to get power from her husband, so she starts to concoct plans to manipulate her husband into murdering King Duncan. Macbeth did not feel comfortable with killing King Duncan just to take the throne, but the persuasion of his wife made him realize the benefits of being king. Although she knew that murdering is wrong, her personal gain from the actions of murder is all she can think about. Lady Macbeth will go as far as drugging people to get access for her husband to kill the king, “That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold. What hath quenched them hath given me fire” (2.2.57). When the madness catches up with her, along with the guilt, she can not bear it anymore. As everything piles up, she starts to regret her past, taking her life to stop the