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More handpicked essays just for you.
Depiction of women in literature
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Lady Macbeth is convinced to rid her self of anything feminine and be fierce like a man. While plotting against Duncan, Lady Macbeth
She challenges Macbeth’s masculinity and prays that Macbeth has enough strength in him to do this, but if he doesn’t then she will. This is clearly stated in this soliloquy by Lady
Control is a recurring theme in the play "Macbeth" as it warns the audience of the reprecussions of trying to control your fate. The first key event where control features in a significant way is the witches prophecies. They tell Macbeth that he will become Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland which establishes the importance of fate. Shakespeare conveys the witches as agents of evil that are deceptive and dangerous, "oftentimes to win us to our harm/the instruments of darkness tell us truths," showing that they use truth itself to influence a horrible outcome (Macbeth 's tragic demise.) Their message is compelling and attractive and we can clearly see their effect on Macbeth as it greatly contrasts to that of Banquo.
Lady Macbeth is telling the spirits to “unsex” her, meaning make her a man. She then states that the reason she wants to become a man is to become cruel and evil so she can kill Duncan. Women were seen as weak and emotional people that can’t do harm to anyone. On the other hand masculine men were seen as strong and cruel, because they aren’t held back by morals. This is why men are able to fight and
Therefore, she could be the one to kill Duncan and take over the power all on her own. In her “unsex me here” speech she explains how she wants “spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, [to] unsex [her] here, and fill [her] from the crown to the toe topful of direst cruelty” (I.v.l 33). She is very determined to kill the king as it will increase the Macbeths social status. Macbeth kills King Duncan which leads him and Lady Macbeth to believe that they conquer all and will not be disappointed in their accomplishment of murdering Duncan.
Dakotah Guzman Mr. John Blaszczak English IV: British Literature 1st Period December 2, 2014 Macbeth Motif: Final Foils as a motif in The Tragedy of Macbeth A foil, according to our textbook, is defined as “a minor character whose attitudes, beliefs, and behavior differ significantly from those of a main character.” (Glencoe Literature British Literature 319). The motive of a foil in a book is to bring attention to the imperfections of a main character and present an idea of the main character had they not had any of these flaws. Throughout William Shakespeare’s well-known tragic play, The Tragedy of Macbeth, the main character Macbeth was presented with many contrasting minor characters that serve the play as his foils.
Women were expected to only pursue domestic activities at home, and do things that would better their families and husbands (Shanette). Not only was there this social expectation of women, but also legally they were not allowed to vote or pursue higher professions such as law, medicine or politics (Shanette). Looking at the character of Lady Macbeth, her being the wife of Macbeth and her role in fulfilling his prophecy of being king would make sense with what was expected of women at the time which was to support their husbands and families in any way they could, and in this situation would be improving their social status and gaining power from the throne. When Macbeth would not go through with the murder on his own, she takes matters into her own hands and has to “unsex” herself to be able to do that for her husband - “Come you spirits/ That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here/And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/Of direst cruelty” (Act I, Scene V, 47,48,49).
She makes evident how important it is for her being the one with power in the relationship with her husband when she wants to take her femininity away as well as wanting to control Macbeth’s actions. By saying ” unsex me here. And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood,” it’s evident she believes that in order to have power and be though she needs to be a man and that’s why she expects a cruel attitude from Macbeth. To sum up, She tries to have control over her husband power by ordering him to follow her plan of killing Duncan and expresses a negative attitude towards him commenting, “But screw your courage to the sticking-place,/And we 'll not fail.”(1.7)
Lady Macbeth is calling to the spirits to assist her murderous ideations and to do that make her less of a women and more like man which will then fill her with deadly cruelty. This supports how she feels, about needing to be manly to commit these horrible
Lady Macbeth tried and attempted to fasten onto Macbeth’s inner feelings and attacked his level of masculinity. He is a easy person to manipulate once the future queen questioned his manliness. Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that he cannot go through with killing King Duncan, she proceeds to tell him that he is a coward. To further convince her husband to kill Duncan is the utmost importance she said that she “would, while (her unborn child) was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed his brains out.” (Act 1, Scene 7, Lines
With this in mind, if a man couldn’t do something a woman can, he was a disgrace; Lady Macbeth is taunting Macbeth with the gender gap, which makes him want to prove he’s more masculine and can keep it together. Even though, Lady Macbeth is viewed as a manipulative character, towards the end, she changes and shows signs of remorse/regret, which is not like her character. Lady Macbeth begins to feel remorseful because she has made an outright killing machine out of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth starts to ask herself “The thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?
Well Lady Macbeth, who is dead set on having absolute power, disagrees with that. She convinces Macbeth to kill, to cover up the murders, and tries to convince him that these murders will get them to the top. Lady Macbeth calls upon the witches and states, “unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty” (Macbeth Act 1 Scene 5 lines 31 and 31). This shows that while in the pursuit of power, Lady Macbeth wanted it so much that she asked the witches to “unsex” her and make her more like man. But along with that you see the theme of gender roles are uncertain which ties into Lady Macbeth leading Macbeth in this pursuit of power, also giving him the ambition that she wants him to
It makes her more ferocious than her masculine counterpart and hence her dominance over Macbeth. As well as she invokes the spirits to deprive her of feminism and make her as volatile as men, so that she can fulfill her dream of being the queen. Lady Macbeth is a bold and ambitious woman. She has implicit faith in herself. She wants to remove every obstacle in her pursuit of becoming the queen.
She commands the spirits to “unsex” her. In other words, she wants to be stripped of her femininity. 11th century England strongly believed that women were mentally inferior to men. Women were supposed to be the only ones able to exhibit ‘weak’ emotions, like sorrow, and conscience. Lady Macbeth clearly does not want to have any such feelings stand in her way to achieving her goal.
She is a loyal though misguided wife, not without tenderness and not without conscience. Lady Macbeth’s willingness to sacrifice her femininity exposes her loyalty towards Macbeth. After reading the letter regarding the witch’s prophecies, she decides she must do whatever it take to make Macbeth King: Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty.