William Shakespeare´s Macbeth is a tragedy about the lust for power and how one man is driven mad with ambition, based on the real 11th century Scottish King Mac Bethad mac Findláich, known in English as Macbeth, who was born around 1005. Even though there are only 6 female characters in Macbeth, they are each presented in various ways throughout the play and have crucial roles. William Shakespeare presents woman through the character of Lady Macbeth as evil and cruel. This is shown this in Act 1 scene 7 when she says, “I have given suck (…) and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this”. In this quote, Lady Macbeth takes breastfeeding, one of the most loving and also important maternal acts for a woman in the Jacobean times and makes it monstrous.
She continues to explain how she would murder her own child if she had promised to do it, showing how she is stronger than her own husband, Macbeth, who hesitates when murdering King Duncan, and stronger than the stereotypical woman in this time, who were considered to be subordinate to men. Her thirst for power and for the crown have made her ruthless and atrocious but, due to her gender, she doesn´t commit any murder. Her depravity is later shown again after Macbeth has murdered King Duncan and she has smeared the King´s attendant’s grooms with Duncan´s blood to frame them for his murder in Act 2 scene 2. “A little water clears us of this dead. How easy is it, then!”, in this quote, we can clearly see that, as Macbeth is being haunted by his actions “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood?”, Lady Macbeth believes that something as simple as water would clean her conscience and make her forget what they have done.
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Another way Lady Macbeth shows her cruelness is how she easily manipulates her husband with remarkable effectiveness by questioning his manhood until he feels he needs to prove himself. However, by the end of the play, Lady Macbeth is unable to cope with the guilt she has for murdering Duncan and, apparently, kills herself, showing how, in the end, she wasn´t able to deal with her crimes. Furthermore, through the characters of the witches, Shakespeare presents woman as supernatural, evil, vile and vindictive creatures who enjoy manipulating others for their own amusement. “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”, in this statement, it is revealed the motive of the witches, to turn everything that is fair and good into something horrible. The audience could also interpret this quote, as the witches telling the audience to not judge a book by its cover, as something may not be what it looks like. Shakespeare shows how the `weird sisters´ are supernatural by the way they speak.
Unlike other characters, like Lady Macbeth and Macbeth who speak in iambic pentameter most of the time, the witches speak in trochaic tetrameter catalectic, showing to the audience how they are not human. Another way Shakespeare shows how malicious they are is by the way the Three Witches influence Macbeth throughout the play and indirectly control him and his actions. This is shown as before Macbeth meets the witches, he is an honorable, brave soldier, however, after his encounter with the witches he becomes blinded by his ambition and kills everyone in his way to the crown; the witches manipulated Macbeth into murdering. On the other hand, woman are also presented as maternal and loving through the character of Lady Macduff, who is the exact opposite of Lady Macbeth.
Even though she only appears in one scene, Act 4 scene 2, she provides an example of a woman who stays within the bounds of her gender and fulfils the expectations of a woman in Jacobean times. This is shown when Lady Macduff says “Whither should I fly? I have done no harm.”, which clearly shows Lady Macbeth is the foil of Lady Macduff, as she is sure that she is good and hasn´t done anything wrong, unlike Lady Macbeth. Another way Shakespeare presents Lady Macduff as caring is by the way that she holds her husband to a higher level and, it is shown that she truly loves and respect him. In contrast, Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband and forces him to do things he doesn´t want to like, killing Duncan. In conclusion, I think each female character in Macbeth is unique, and are presented by Shakespeare in many different ways, from caring, maternal characters that fulfill the stereotypic woman, to supernatural and evil roles that subvert expectations of the time.
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