A powerhouse of a woman is hard to come by in Shakespeare's plays, but Lady Macbeth is certainly the perfect example. Lady Macbeth’s strength of will completely overshadows that of the men surrounding her. This is so uncharacteristic of the women that Shakespeare normally writes about, and I find it rather fascinating. The audiences first introduction to Lady Macbeth is when she is reading a letter from Macbeth detailing his encounter with the witches. Upon reading the prophesy, and how much truth the first one held, she almost immediately jumps to the idea of assassinating King Duncan so Macbeth can replace him. Straight off the bat, Lady Macbeth is depicted as power hungry, tricky, manipulative and ambitious. Although Macbeth seems inclined to accept the fact that he has not been named King Duncan's heir, Lady Macbeth will not settle for less than what she wants. She bullies Macbeth into taking part in this murder scheme by insulting his pride, his manhood and calling him a coward, until he agrees to take part in her scheme. In doing so, she manipulates him into taking part of an act that he truly wants no part of. Although Macbeth feels that he is betraying his duties to the King by inviting him as a guest to his house, and then killing him, Lady Macbeth feels no such qualms. In fact, at one point she actually wishes she was a man so that she could do the deed herself and not bother with Macbeth. I got the impression that she finds him weak willed, and only seems to be using the fact that he is a man to gain power. If she were a man, she would not bother with Macbeth. I imagine she would seize all the power for herself.
When placed in this situation with her husband, Lady Macbeth seems remarkably strong willed for a woman of her time. However, she is not so dominant and powerful all the time. The audience is allowed the opportunity to see another side of Lady Macbeth. When she is alone she seems far more insecure, calling on other forces to help her. Her imminent weakness also becomes more and more apparent after the deed has been completed. Lady Macbeth becomes less and less domineering as she seems to be swallowed by her guilt.
1 comment:
Everyone likes Lady Macbeth and I think it is because she is kind of the opposite of Macbeth. She is the main instigator in the plot to kill the king. And while she is the strong one, Macbeth is always worrysome. Also, you mentioned how Lady Macbeth is eventually consumed by her guilt. At this point, this is her lowest, yet Macbeth finally fights on to the end despite his fears. But it is cool that this is the first play that Shakespeare actually has a powerful woman character. Any other time, they are usually beside their men as quiet and barely there characters as if they don't matter.
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