Toward the end of the play Macbeth has been taken over by his ambition. The characters in Macbeth are aften dwelling on gender, which influences many, but not all of their actions throughout the play. This is obvious when seeing the manipulation through gender and the reversal of gender roles in found in the tale of Macbeth. Early in the play, when Lady Macbeth hears that there is a possibility her husband might be the king, she is fueled with ambition. She acts as though she will do anything to be the queen.
“(1.3.47-49) These three lines are extremely crucial to the play because it gives Macbeth his beginning thoughts toward receiving the throne. Shakespeare made the witches deceive Macbeth and Banquo who begin to believe they are invincible and have much to look forward to. This proves misogyny in Shakespeare because it ultimately put the witches to blame for all the horrible events in the play. Shakespeare also portrays his misogyny through Macbeth as he belittles the witches by saying, “How now, you secret, black and midnight hags.” (4.1.47) In Shakespeare’s era, chivalry and respect toward women was big. By having a character in his play say this to three so called women, seems
Introduction Shakespeare sees powerful and ambitious women as evil and bewitched because men are meant to be the powerful ones and women are meant to be weak. Today we see powerful and ambitious women as no different than men and they are in our community everywhere. For example Shakespeare shows this with Lady Macbeth being ambitious about being queen and this would be conveyed as being disturbed and abnormal in the 17th century. Lady Macbeth’s ambition to be queen is first disturbed in act 5 scene 1 when she is in a room alone reading her soliloquies and does not her understanding on her surroundings. She then slips into a slope of depression, guilt and insomnia.
In her first scene, Lady Macbeth is considered disturbed because she does not fit into the typical image of women at the time. This is suggested by such sayings as ‘that I may pour my spirits in thine ear’ and ‘leave all the rest to me,’ which could suggest disturbance of the natural order as she appears to be more powerful than Macbeth. Women were supposed to be inferior to men at the time Shakespeare wrote the play, so this would have surprised his audience and would have made a more memorable character. Perhaps Shakespeare did this to attract a larger audience, as more people would enjoy a unique play that created some emotion, even if it is hatred towards a character. Lots of writers also use inspiration from people they know in reality when they create characters, so perhaps Shakespeare knew a woman who seemed ‘out of place’ or independent.
During the time period in which Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, women were uneducated, they were forced to act submissively and never express their opinions. Shakespeare, by using several female characters, particularly the Three Witches with powerful roles, made a complete turnaround from the norm as he went against expectations for the time period. One of the first examples of this is in Act 1 Scene 3 when one of the witches reveals that she has been ‘killing swine’ this contradicts the way women should have behaved during the 1600s as they were perceived to be kind, caring creatures. This is one of the commonest charges brought against supposed witches in Shakespeare's day was that they maliciously killed by pestilence, or the evil eye, the domestic animals of those they had a grudge against. The fact that this is some of the first activity from the witches gives us an insight into the masculinity that the witches hold.
When we first see her, she is already plotting Duncan’s murder, and she is stronger, more ruthless, and more ambitious than her husband. She seems fully aware of this and knows that she will have to push Macbeth into committing murder. At one point, she wishes that she were not a woman so that she could do it herself. This theme of the relationship between gender and power is the key to Lady Macbeth’s character: her husband implies that she is a masculine soul inhabiting a female body, which seems to link masculinity to ambition and violence. Shakespeare, however, seems to use her, and the witches, to undercut Macbeth’s idea that “undaunted mettle should compose / Nothing but males” (1.7.73–74).
Shakespeare portrays monstrosity through the character of Lady Macbeth in numerous ways. One way in which Lady Macbeth’s monstrosity is conveyed is through her wanting to be a more powerful than some men. For instance, she says “Leave all the rest to me”. This is unusual as it is rather commanding for a woman in that time to say something like that to her husband. Also it would have been seen as being deeply unnatural because women were seen to be of a much lower status than any man.
They clearly have an extremely passionate relationship and Shakespeare portrays that Lady Macbeth is willing to do whatever it takes to assist her husband. You could argue that the idea of potential power, or moving up the social hierarchy, goes to Lady Macbeth’s head and that her motivation for helping Macbeth is rather selfish-she alone wants the power. It could also be argued that the ‘fatal’, ‘gall’, ‘murdering’, ‘mischief’, ‘night’, and ‘Hell’ also support the previous point. The audience never actually meet the ‘real’ Lady Macbeth without the influence of the witches. As there is such a huge supernatural element to this scene and it is so carefully attached to Lady Macbeth in this scene, it makes me question how the Elizabethan audience would have reacted to her character.
Lady Macbeth constantly challenges her husband's manhood by mocking and taunting him into a state of . We can see this when she challanges Macbeth in saying """"""""" Since he fulfilled her order, he started losing his integrity and relying less on his conscience. It is easier to have sympathy for a person who is not entirely to blame for his actions. In Macbeth's case, his wife was at least partly responsible. However, even taking into consideration the pressure and harassment Macbeth is subjected to preceding
Shakespeare’s Advanced Views of Women in The Merchant of Venice The way women are portrayed in society has evolved throughout the centuries. In the past, women were looked down upon and were not seen as strong, or equal; they were not trusted nor were they able to have a say in anything. In William Shakespeare’s, The Merchant of Venice however, Shakespeare demonstrates an advanced view of women for the time period he resided in. Throughout the play, the women express their high value and confidence through their courage and strong wills. Courageous acts from the women in Elizabethan times were very uncommon, as the women generally relied on men to protect them.