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. Apart from that, witches were always seen as female, and not as male. Therefore, two embodiments of evil in the play are the Witches and Lady Macbeth (both mentioned above). They play a large part in the downfall of Macbeth as they put the initial idea of becoming king into Macbeth´s head by “predicting” it.
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She is the darkest side of his husband because she is the main driving force behind the murder of Duncan because she encourages him, and the attempt to cover it up. She acts like the witches, with manipulation, showing him that to murder someone is not such a thing, and that he must “be a man”. What Lady Macbeth does not know, is that sooner or later the consequences arrive. She is blinded by her want for him to become king and her ambition wins. Additionally, Lady Macbeth takes the witches predictions and try to become them true, she leverages that opportunity to make it reality. She finishes what the witches somehow started, and she can act when Macbeth is not. The way of evil is linked from the three witches to Lady Macbeth, meaning that without the witches Lady Macbeth will not show her ambition, and vice versa. If Lady Macbeth had not acted, the witches would achieve their idea of deceiving