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Comparing Women In Macbeth And Wuthering Heights

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Women deprive men of their own thoughts that allow her to gain control over him. In Macbeth and Wuthering Heights, Shakespeare and Brontë portray the way women manipulate men. This play and novel contain many different methods of women playing the role of a controlling individual.
In the play, Macbeth first gets a visit from the witches to claim his three prophecies: thane of Glamis, thane of Cawdor, and king. Macbeth becomes thrilled of the prophecies and is searching for ways to make the prophecies true. “Stay, you imperfect speakers. Tell me more” (1.3. 70). Macbeth wants to become powerful because of the witches tales, but they disappear without telling him anymore. In the novel, Heathcliff begs to be haunted by Catherine's ghost “It formed a sweet picture” (Brontë 67) his imagination grows about the afterlife and seeing Catherine's ghost lets him know that she is still there with him, even death could not keep them apart.
Lady Macbeth seems to be the typical renaissance wife, but is she really? “Lady Macbeth, who takes control of her own destiny, claims her desires, and …show more content…

“Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life and live a coward in thine own esteem” (1.7.42-43). Macbeth becomes hesitant to the plan that Lady Macbeth has in mind about how he should become king of Scotland. She becomes manipulative to her husband by the way she speaks to him. In Wuthering Heights, Catherine manipulates Edgar to allow Heathcliff to come in his house because she wants to see him “Yet, for my sake, you must be friends now. Shall I tell him to come up now” (Brontë 97)? Finally, Edgar allows Heathcliff to come up into Thrushcross Grange, and Catherine is flushed at the cheeks with happiness by the sight of him. “Catherine or Heathcliff's wrongdoings will be arbitrarily punished” (Wing-Chi Ki 206). Edgar grows jealous of his wife's affection towards

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In House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski it discusses the experiences everyone endures once entering the house, although the people that enter the house are primarily males as the reader I become part of the book. Resembling to the characters we all symbolize something different, however by the end the characters all become interconnected by causing some harm to themselves or become insane because they cannot determine what is occurring in the house. However, I have learned to not be afraid of the unknown because they are made as a path to learn from. In addition, I changed from being someone that wanted to know everything to having a mystery is fine and not necessary for it to become an obsession. Danielewski when making reference to the house, it appears to be blue, and he does not interchange between house and home because of the distinct definitions.

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Women, Power and the Devil; although many may incline to believe this to be the feminist holy trinity, it is, in fact, men's worst fear. Going back from second-century Christian theologian Tertullian who claimed women to be the gate of Hell (2) to a notorious American businessman who recently accused this presidential candidate of being the Devil himself (Volk and Sullivan,"Trump calls Hillary Clinton ‘the devil’"), men have always been prone to demonize women in order to prove their unfitness to govern. Shakespeare is no stranger to this thought pattern which he explores in his 1606 play, Macbeth. Indeed, Shakespeare's vile portrayal of Lady Macbeth and the Witches in the play stems from the medieval demonization of women. Through his choice

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Gender roles have impacted the lives of men and women for centuries. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth attempt to defy societal expectations, but eventually they both succumb to the traditional gender roles assigned to them. The witches are the only ones who never conform to societal standards and are free to act without consequences. Although Shakespeare initially questions the traditional gender roles of his time, it is evident that only the witches, who are gender neutral, are truly free to ignore societal expectations, as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's attempt to do so leads to their ultimate demise.

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Desire, power, control: Three traits that are ignited in Macbeth as a result of his wife, Lady Macbeth and the three witches. From the start, we are introduced to the main character, the Thane of Glamis, a patriotic and noble man. We see things start to change after Macbeth is visited by three witches, who predicts he will soon become the Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth ignores this prediction until he visits his wife, Lady Macbeth. In Macbeth, Macbeth is manipulated by his wife Lady Macbeth, and the witches, who are the true causes of his downfall.

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From the beginning of the play, Macbeth's unmatched ambition and desire for power and control drives him into a spiral of moral decay, showing his lack of a guiding moral compass. The encounter with the witches in Act 1 acts as a trigger cause, awakening his dormant desires for power. This theme of ambition is further underscored by the hallucination that haunt him, showing him visions of the dagger in Act 2, representing Macbeth's willingness to embrace violence in pursuit of his ambitions. As the play unfolds, Macbeth's descent into darkness becomes increasingly evident, illustrating the dangers of unchecked ambition. The witches' prophecies serve as ominous warnings of Macbeth's impending doom, their influence leading him down a path of treachery and destruction.

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For centuries , witches have been stoned to death and burned alive simply for being able to create magic . The notion of witches have been a taboo subject that most people would try to avoid but William Shakespeare did not make their reputation any better by depicting them as malicious and demonic in his famous play ‘ Macbeth’ which a lot of people tried making movies of . Despite bearing some similarities between the three videos in which the witches were in , the differences are profound . To start with , there are quite some similarities between the witches in the three movies . In George Wright’s , Rupert Goold’s , and Kurzel’s movies , all of the witches seemed to say the same lines , despite them being from different timelines .

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Through Macbeth, Shakespeare conveys that the need to conform to gender roles can cause people to go against their moral code. Several times in the play, manhood is called to upon justify evil acts. The expectation of men to be ruthless and unmerciful in this society caused Macbeth to participate in acts he wouldn’t usually agree to because of morality. In the play, Macbeth receives a prophecy that tells him he will one day be the Thane of Cawdor and then the king. When the former comes true, Macbeth shares the prophecy with his wife, Lady Macbeth.

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Lady Macbeth is portrayed as very powerful and ambitious. She is characterized by Shakespeare to be manipulative, cunning, deceitful and cold hearted. During Shakespearian times women were stereotypically meant to sit pretty and be benevolent and were only useful for ‘providing children’. So in contrast, Shakespeare created the character of lady Macbeth, to not only break all these stereotypical characteristics, but emerge as an extreme to the general expectation of the time. She is made to be the catalyst in order to help Macbeth in gaining power, that she desires more than Macbeth himself, but she knows that this is also hugely beneficial to her, as it fulfils her ambition and desire to become queen.

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They “show him what he could be” and “murder becomes the means” that he must use to “create actively his destiny” (Asp, par. 25). The Weird Sisters do not blatantly tell Macbeth to commit murder. But by enticing him with prophesies of power, the thoughts of what could be make it that much easier to follow through. The witches do not submit to people of the mortal world; “they come and go as they please” and will not “be interrogated” (Asp, par. 24). The notion that a feminine character denies questioning by a male shows the power shift.

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Heathcliff’s biggest antagonist is Catherine, and even though he no longer loves her, he has a keen obsession with making her life miserable in order to reverse the humiliation he experienced while growing up enamored with her. Although Catherine is higher up in societal rankings than Heathcliff, he still has the power to get away with whatever torture he pleases. This is observed in the scene where Edgar becomes angry with Catherine when she lashes out on Nelly, Hareton, and Edgar in a fit of anger, and Edgar exclaims how her actions have made him “afraid and ashamed of [Catherine]” (8.70). Because of Edgar’s tender persona and Catherine’s restraints from her social standings to act like a well-behaved woman, it is noted by Heathcliff

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In MacBeth, even though men are seen as the stronger and more powerful sex, by giving women power, Shakespeare allows them to be the inciting force of many key events and most

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Now he knows that in order to make up for this loss, Heathcliff must come into possession of not only Wuthering Heights but also Thrushcross Grange as part of his revenge (Watson). Still, Catherine marries Edgar and their marriage becomes the greatest injustice bestowed upon Heathcliff, consequently leading to Heathcliff’s period of insanity. Melvin Watson, a victorian literature specialist, attests to this theory stating how Heathcliff is a man who is set in his ways and he will do anything to get Catherine, treating wealth and class as mere obstacles, but if his only source of happiness is taken away from him, then he turns to hate and Edgar along with every related person to Edgar is added to his “hit list” right under Hindley (Watson

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851 Words | 4 Pages

The women in Macbeth are presented by Shakespeare to be powerful and ambitious which was unlike the typical views during Jacobean times. The playwright portrays Lady Macbeth and the witches to be highly influential to male characters in the play, which again contrasts the contemporary views to that time. Their ambition and power are demonstrated through the perversion of nature. This highlights the evil and immoral side, they possess. Shakespeare, however, presented Lady Macbeth and the witches to be manipulative and cunning, rather than violent like Macbeth was during the play.

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1183 Words | 5 Pages

It is clear that Lady Macbeth is the dominant one in their relationship as she seizes control of all situations. Although “women are perceived as the primary caretaker of the home among other oppressive notions that pertain to them. They

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In comparison, females were significantly limited in their ability to access political or patriarchal authority, as embodied by Lady Macbeth. During the Elizabethan era, it was customary for females to hold supportive and domestic roles as wives and hostesses. At first glance Lady Macbeth satisfies this norm. However, upon learning of the witches’ prophecies, Lady Macbeth ambitiously devises a plan in a lead to access the power she is denied her traditional gender role. Lady Macbeth desire is to wield influence as Queen of Scotland.

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