Shakespeare, like any other man in the 16th and 17th century, saw ambitious and dominant women as evil and even disturbing or disturbed. From Macbeth, we can see Shakespeare feels women should be challenged and punished because they are trying to change society. Nowadays these ambitious and dominant women are regarded as brave and respected because of their ambition, such as Lady Macbeth’s ambition to become Queen. Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as mentally disturbed. At first, rather than putting all the blame on Macbeth she is proud of her involvement in the murder stating: “My hands are of your colour but I shame to wear a heart so white.” Initially this villainizes her as she is in control rather than being an obedient wife going against Jacobean stereotypes …show more content…
That summons thee to heaven, or to hell” as these reference the unmoral parts of her life suggesting her disturbed nature could be because of her lack of sanity as she hallucinates the blood on her hands. Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as disturbed because she subverts the ideas of religion and the supernatural which were contradictory during the Jacobean era. Rather than fulfilling the audience’s expectations that religion and the supernatural are contradictory, she conjures the idea that they are similar as she says, “look like th’innocent flower but be the serpent under’t.” The auxiliary verb “be” is quite disturbing because she is demanding Macbeth to be a certain way showing her rebellion against stereotypes as women had to obey their husbands. Shakespeare could have been doing this to present her as an outcast, disturbing the audience. Also, the personification of “flower” shows her manipulating him to have a facade of morality but deep down know he is the serpent, presenting her as disturbed because she is seduced by power and uses the worst of people to her advantage. This is because a flower