I believe that Macbeth remains so popular today because of its themes. These include how greed, ambition, and power can take over our morality. Also, how gender roles were reversed, these themes still intrigue us today. People can become power-hungry and do anything like Lady Macbeth and Macbeth did to rule the throne. Equally intriguing is how traditional male and female roles can be reversed, even in medieval times. One part of the play that impacted me was how Lady Macbeth was willing to do anything to get Macbeth to the throne and fulfill the witches’ prophecy. She took on a dominant role and was the driving force behind such evilness, with strong roles of ruthlessness, intelligence, and ambition. This impacted me because, even in medieval times, it shows how a woman can be a driving force in a relationship and doesn’t always have to play the typical meek and mild female role. I think it was particularly interesting at this point in the play as well because the witches told him he would be the one to be king but it was the mild-mannered one, and it was his wife that was the fierce one. She even declares her desire to take on this role when she exclaims, “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. Make thick my blood.” (Acts 1, scene 5, lines 38–40). …show more content…
This is an important point because Shakespeare influenced the audience to think about these traditional roles by having men play these female roles in medieval times. Banquo even says, “You should be women,/ And yet your beards forbid me to interpret/ That you are so” (Acts 1, Scene 3, lines