Female Power In Macbeth Essay

After the victory of Banquo and Macbeth against the king 's traitor Macdonwald the witches presence contract the vibe of manipulation seeking Macbeth as its next victim. As they encounter with Macbeth and Banquo, they start-off questioning the trio of leery ladies. "look not like the inhabitants of the earth, / And yet are on it"; they seem to understand him, and yet he cannot be sure; they "should be women," and yet they are bearded. One by one the witches told Macbeth his upcoming abundance of power leaving him immensely petrified. As a result the prophecies were the contemporary force plaguing Macbeth into slaughtering King Duncan for his aspiration.

Lady Macbeth who lusts for power and position. She affects in a negative way. Also, Macbeth couldn’t show his feelings, and what he thinks about killing Duncan. For example, she tries to persuade him to kill the king when she says, “what beast was ‘t, then, that made you break this enterprise to me?”

In Macbeth, Shakespeare’s witch plans the harm she will cause another’s husband, who is a sailor on a ship (Levin 2), exemplifying the witch who is able able to cause adverse events, causing harm, or punishing others. Also, the witches attempted to use ‘image magic’, which is when a person creates a wax figure and then harms that figure, thus causing harm to the actual person (Levin 6). This idea of abstract magical power contrasted with witchcraft in the Dark Ages where power was derived more from knowledge and use of specific herbs and potions. The invention of the printing press similarly had the ironic effect of spreading belief in witches along

A witch is a person close to God and being close to God is being in a place of high power. So, when rumors of women practicing witchcraft begin to circulate, the town’s biggest fear begins to arise and they quickly tried to put a stop to it, henceforth, the witch trials commenced. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, women are able to take power from their society through various means other than gaining leadership. The ways in which women are able to achieve power include Abigail Williams’ use of dishonesty and manipulation that prompts the witch trials as well as Rebecca Nurse’s refusal of a confession that defies the conventional paradigms of the society.

Macbeth not falling into the temptation right away would be very frustrating for the witches. The witches needed someone that Macbeth trusted that could convince Macbeth that this was really the right thing to do. This person would be Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth learns from the witches that Macbeth is going to be King. Lady Macbeth becomes immediately influenced and under Satan’s control.

In the play Macbeth, the Witches play a bigger role than one might expect. The Witches are temptations of evil and with the Witches’ mischief prey upon Macbeth’s ambition like puppeteers. The Witches give Macbeth numerous prophecies that are told to provoke Macbeth towards his doom. The prophecies give Macbeth thoughts of treason against the King, tells Macbeth to secure the kingdom from Banquo’s descendants, and give Macbeth the false courage that leads him to think he was invincible. If the Witches’ prophecies did not guide Macbeth, his life would not have led to tragedy.

At the beginning of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, he initially presents the relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth as mainly dominated by Lady Macbeth. She was the first one to suggest murdering King Duncan to fulfill the witches prophecy for Macbeth. She is heavily driven by ambition and it willing to go to extreme extents, she calls the spirits to ‘unsex her’ and take away her femininity so she is able to commit the crime without feeling guilt and remorse. Macbeth is unsure about going through with the plan and tells Lady Macbeth ‘they will proceed no further in this business’ this shows that Macbeth was heavily persuaded and almost forced into killing King Duncan.

Throughout the story of Macbeth, Macbeth’s ambition for power, provoked by his significant other, Lady Macbeth, and the witches’ prophecies consumed his life. At first he committed murder against King Duncan so he could become king himself, but the one murder had a domino affect. Although ambition can be a positive attribute for someone to acquire, Macbeth’s ambition began in Act One and proved dangerous as his death approached in Act Five. In Act One of Macbeth, Macbeth and Banquo meet three witches that tell them three prophecies.

Who was responsible for the final outcome of his descent? Lady Macbeth and the three witches were major influences in his descent, but ultimately was Macbeth responsible for his own destruction? To be able to identify who is really responsible for this unfortunate outcome, one must examine each person’s role in in the play and in Macbeth’s descent into madness. It is only logical to look at the three witches first, since they were the ones who planted the ideas of being King in Macbeth’s head.

Then, when Macbeth seeks the witches, they further equivocate, orchestrating his downfall by misleading him. The author also depicts Malcolm using equivocation to deceive MacDuff into revealing his true personality, helping him develop a valuable alliance to defeat Macbeth. From these instances of deception in Macbeth, Shakespeare shows equivocation as a weapon. Equivocation is a weapon that grants significant power over a situation to its caster by enabling them to reveal the true intentions of the victim and manipulate their action with the results depending on the intent of the equivocator.

Macbeth takes place in medieval Scotland, where gender barriers were very strict. Men were supposed to act as strong fighters, while women were locked in the domestic sphere. These gender roles are prominent in the character developments of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. At first, Macbeth is a strong, heroic solider that shows unbounded courage in battle and loyalty to his king. As the play progresses, he becomes cold, ruthless, and miserable.