Gender Boundaries In Lady Macbeth

The Weird Sisters answer to Hecate and her need for control is evident when she is infuriated by their dialog with Macbeth. By speaking of “riddles and affairs of death,” (Shakespeare 373) the Weird Sisters stepped out of line without their leaders’ permission. Being the “close contriver of all harms,” Hecate is enraged at the fact she was “never called to bear [her] part” (Shakespeare 373) in the handling of Macbeth’s prophesy. She wishes to control everything under the “umbrella” of spells and witchcraft. Although she is considered a goddess, the simple principle of her sexuality and influence coincides with female dominance.

Lady Macbeth’s strong character portrayed in Act I Scene V creates suspicion of dark events later in the play. In the play, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth reveals her true character in her speech and foreshadows King Duncan’s death. Throughout her speech, Lady Macbeth reveals her lust for power and desire to kill Duncan to become queen. Although Lady Macbeth’s character is recently introduced into the play, she reveals her true self as a sadistic and covetous person which foreshadows the murder of King Duncan and Macbeth’s prophesied future.

She goads Macbeth and convinces him to murder King Duncan. During this period of time Lady Macbeth’s masculine traits are at their peak, as she states “That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,” (Act 1, Scene). This phrase is vital in Lady Macbeth’s character development as it emphasizes the masculinity that she portrays. As contemporary audiences are much more open minded about gender equality, are the dominance of Lady Macbeth in the relationship between her and Macbeth is not surprising.

Lady Macbeth has high ambition for her spouse. She comprehends that Macbeth has a desire for the throne. Be that as it may, she expects that her spouse would experience difficulty when endeavoring to murder Duncan and want the throne on the grounds that she sees Macbeth as "full o' the milk of human kindness". Since Lady Macbeth realizes that her spouse would never have the capacity to perform such an errand, she chooses to control the of the killing of Duncan. She requests that "direst brutality" debase her.

In this essay I will be comparing two female characters from different texts and different time periods. We will be looking in depth at Lady Macbeth from Shakespeare 's play 'Macbeth ', and Sheila from J.B. Priestley 's 'An Inspector Calls '. We will be looking at their roles in their respective plays, and how their characters develop over time. It is clear that both ladies are in strong relationships, but how they act within these relationships is vastly different.

The only way for Lady Macbeth fulfill her ambitions is by influencing Macbeth to murder King Duncan and take his throne away. Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth persuasively throughout their conversation: “When you durst do it, then you were a man; / And to be more than what you were, you would / Be so much more than man” (1.7, 50-52). Macbeth shows weakness and cowardly on trying to murder King Duncan. It proves how Lady Macbeth tries to corrupt him by doubting his manhood.

At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth begins to encourage Macbeth to commit evil actions for power and fulfill all prophecies. After the witches give me prophecies to Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is determined to make these prophecies true by controlling and encouraging Macbeth to commit crimes. When Macbeth is hesitating about committing crimes, Lady Macbeth argues and says “... From this time/ Such I account thy love.

Through Lady Macbeth’s change from ruthless and masculin to insane, Shakespeare illustrates the impact of murder. Shakespeare portrays Lady Macbeth as masculine, and ruthless in order to illustrate unmerciful cruelty. Just after Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth about his encounter with the three witches, Lady Macbeth prayed to be stripped of any emotions. She prayed to be unsexed which doing so she would have no grieve, guilt, or regret towards killing King Duncan.

Unfortunately, Lady Macbeth herself lacks the capability to kill Duncan. While she sincerely wishes she was able to complete the act, she asks the spirits if they could “unsex” her so that she would be capable of killing King Duncan (Shakespeare 32). As Lady Macbeth becomes aware of the witches’ prophecy, her ambition prompts her to develop a plan involving Macbeth murdering the king. However, she also suspects that her husband is “too full of the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way” (Shakespeare 30), and therefore too civil to be able to seize the throne. Throughout her soliloquy that follows, Lady Macbeth finds that the only way to accomplish her goal is to manipulate her husband and convince him to go through with the murder.

When Lady Macbeth first receives the letter from Macbeth that holds the witches’ prophecy, she says that Macbeth is “too full of milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way,” ( Act i. V 16-20) meaning that Macbeth is too nice to do anything with ill intentions. When Lady Macbeth tries to convince Macbeth to murder

Shakespeare intended Lady Macbeth to be a multifaceted character. We know this because even though she had evil conquests and was manipulative, she never lost her humanity because guilt took its toll on her. Stereotypically, to be evil means to do things considered amoral and have no remorse after doing these bad things. Lady Macbeth possess evil characteristics and is very manipulative.

In the play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth has a very large range of emotions as the play progresses and she changes drastically over the course of events. At the beginning, she encourages Macbeth to kill Duncan but as it goes on, she realizes he’s taking it way too far and goes crazy with guilt and loneliness. Lady Macbeth said, “Unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe topfull of direst cruelty; make thick my blood, stop up th’access and passage to remorse.” (Act I, scene 5, line 40)

Those who work diligently in the face of a problem work harder and remain humble in order to overcome the issue at hand. Others who are power hungry, however, remain selfish and greedy. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth, the Macbeth’s were modest and worked hard for what they wanted- which was power. When it is achieved, the power consumes them and controls their actions. Adversity causes Macbeth to work harder and use the help of the other men around him, yet when he ultimately acquires the power he is searching for, it goes to his head, causing him to act in violence by murdering those who he believes stand in his way.

Possibly one of the most influential characters of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth takes the definition of female dominance to an entirely new level with her ability to manipulate, yet love her husband, and her ability to accuse, yet reassure him of his actions. Though Lady Macbeth is not well described anterior to her introduction, it is immediately apparent that she holds her dominance using her cunning skills, fuelled by ambition, which makes her one of the cruellest characters in Macbeth. Her portrayal of cunningness, upon Duncan’s arrival to Macbeth’s castle, is shown when she allows the king to “Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt, / To make their audit at [his] pleasure” (1.6.31–32), in order to give him a false sense of security, when in reality, she wants to ensure that “[her] keen knife see not the wound it makes” (1.5.55) on Duncan. As a result, Lady Macbeth is able to let the king into their castle without hesitation, just like a serpent underneath an innocent flower. While her cunningness is a character trait to fear, it is what fuels it that gives Lady Macbeth her power; ambition.

Ambition is a powerful motivating force, but can you ever really be too ambitious well in Macbeth ambition cause him to become a murder to try to reach his goal. This dark path cause him to kill and left him with a mentality twisted consions and all thanks to his big desire of power. This desire of power started when he met the witches in Act 1 scene 3 where they tell him “ All hail ,Macbeth, hail to the Cawdor!” “All hail, Macbeth, thou stalt be king here after!”