Female power in Macbeth The three witches Apart from Lady Macbeth, who is the most relevant character related to gender and power issues, the three witches are instrumental in starting the action that leads to so much tragedy. In the manner of Lady Macbeth, they try to break gender barriers, and they are represented as evil for two reasons. On the one hand, when Christianity was established witches were associated with the devil. On the other hand, Shakespeare wrote Macbeth with King James I in mind, and he wrote a book on wizardry. Many of the ideas that the king expressed to the public were included in Macbeth, such as predicting the future.
Witches are secret enemies within, who look the same as everyone else until they are exposed, and this need to uncover hidden malice is what distinguishes witch-hunting from other forms of communal persecution. Once identified, witches are either brought back into the body politic through a process of confession and expiation, or expelled completely. Either way, the magical cause of misfortune is removed and the social balance restored. (Armstrong 224) This explanation covers all the bases. How witch hunts come about (through enemies or threats), the process of a witch hunt (trials of a sort), the conclusion (the removal of the accused), and finally, the end goal of returning to normal.
This misconstrued insinuation that Lady Macbeth is evil is centered on the ideation that she is hailed in literature as being the physical manifestation of Satan. By this mentality, Lady Macbeth is characterized as a comparative to the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Using manipulation and corrupt initiates, she tempts a naïve individual into committing a sin that bears an outcome to which is mostly in favor of the tempter and not so much the tempted. In spite of the fact that Lady Macbeth urges on various morally degenerating acts, her actions are all merely built upon erroneous judgment and blind aspirations. Therefore, she can viably be characterized as ambitious and power hungry.
The witches give Macbeth the prophecy and plant a seed of evil in his mind. This is demonstrated with the quote: My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man (1.3.52-55) At first glance this may seem like a defense of moral actions in response to the assertion of the witches of his ascension to the throne. But, in reality, the fact that Macbeth 's first impulse upon hearing the prophecy of his
The study therefore concludes that the kind of treatment given to alleged witches are against their human rights and brings shame to the person alleged to be a witch. The study concludes that alleged witches are forced to created witch camps by the chiefs and elders of the communities when the alleged witch is being accused, fetish priests sometime make such pronouncements and in some cases by their relatives and they are also confronted with physical torture, mental problems, and financial problems. 5.3 Recommendations The study found that witchcraft is identified by using supernatural powers, through the exhibition of extreme anti-social behavior patterns and sudden misfortunes and mysterious deaths hence the study concludes that witchcraft exist and has been overwhelmingly supported by respondents. The study recommended that, harmless measures should be adopted by stakeholders like chiefs, fetish priests and families to effectively deal with purported supernatural power possessed by an
In Shakespeare 's Macbeth, Malcolm describes Lady Macbeth as a “fiend-like Queen” The definition of fiend is someone who has an evil spirit, a person who is a cruel, brutal or spiteful person and is extremely wicked. Shakespeare presents elements of wicked deception in Lady Macbeth’s character throughout the play through her choice of form and language which is used to mask the evil of the deed she is convincing him to do, an example of this is in Act 1 Scene 5 when she chooses to use the word ‘dispatch’ over ‘murder’ to desensitize the horror of the killing. This is an effective choice of language from Lady Macbeth as it tricks Macbeth into believing the death of King Duncan was inevitable as it had already been prophecised so therefore he wasn’t committing treason, murder or disrupting the natural order which was believed to have been decided by God at the time by society.
Angela Carter’s texts vehemently attacks the stereotypical notions asserted by the culture with a sturdy intention of deconstructing the collective order of society. There is an excessive use of violence, sexual brutality, pornographic contents and exuberance of female power in Carter’s writing. Makinen addresses Carter as the “avant-garde literary terrorist of feminism” (2) for savagely attacking the cultural stereotypes which is both disturbing and alienating. Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories is a set of re-structured fairy tales with an obtrusive purpose of altering the formula set by the traditional stories. Carter reassembles the well known fairy tales to an adult version of those tales with a feministic angle to explicate
Act 1 Reading Log Scene 1 • Quote analysis : “Fair is foul and foul is fair, hover through the fog and filthy air” (1.1.12-13). This quote by the witches indicates the general atmosphere of the play, which is one of deceit and uncertainty. Acts that alone are terrible are justified many times throughout the play. By ‘hovering through the fog and filthy air”, the witches mean to say they are above the conflicts of men and although Macbeth may not know his fate, they certainly will. • Significance of scene: Sets the general mood of the play as well as foreshadows what is to come.
Love can be an effective medication. That might be the motivation behind why it is so difficult to detect a harmful relationship. Most leave at the primary indication of mishandle, however others stay, and the outcome is a formula for devastation. The subject of pulverization cherish inside relational connections in Shakespeare's Macbeth and Bronte's Wuthering Heights is displayed through sexism, control, and disloyalty. In Macbeth, one of the primary fights the audience of people sees is Lady Macbeth's control over Macbeth, "Woman Macbeth's depiction starts with the capable components of her yearning and fruitful plotting of Duncan's end, powerful expository control of her better half to 'take care of business' and make a move" (Thomas 82).
The three Weird Sisters – or, more simply, the witches – are one of the most iconic and well known features of Macbeth. Iris Theatre’s production of the play portrayed them as controlling, demonic forces, and by doing this, dilutes the original moral message of the play. The Witches portrayal is one of the most important decisions that each production of Macbeth must make for itself. As Norton Shakespeare’s introduction to the play states, “What is the nature of these strange creatures that ‘look not like th’inhabitants o’th earth,’ as Banquo observes, ‘and yet are on’t’ (1.3.39 – 40)? Actors’ responses to these questions have ranged wildly, though virtually all productions have recognized that the witches’ scenes are among the most theatrically powerful and compelling in the play whether they are made up to look grotesque or stately, perversely comic or terrifying” (840).