The Use of Women as a Tool to Untie Hamlet In the play, Hamlet, William Shakespeare crafts a tragedy centralized around the main character, Prince Hamlet and his negative perception of the women in his life. One main point of Shakespeare’s piece is to highlight how a female’s weakness ultimately shapes the decisions of their male counterparts. He does so by skillfully using the nature of a woman as a compelling force that leads to Hamlet’s destruction. Prince Hamlet struggles with accepting the harsh reality that his mother has remarried to her late husband’s brother. This conflict within Hamlet is further expounded by the possibility that his father was murdered by his uncle, King Cladius.
As a result of her husbands control, the woman develops and obsessive attachment to the wallpaper which masks the walls of her bedroom. Gilman composed the short story to make determined statements about feminism and individuality to oppose the male authority that ruled over her during her lifetime. Gilman does this by describing the narrators decent into madness, which is caused by many factors, all being linked to her husband. It’s immediately apparent in “The Yellow Wallpaper” that the woman allows herself to be inferior to men, in particular her husband, John. This ultimately leaves the reader with many questions about 19th century male-female relationships and perhaps insanity.
The readers decide whether Lady Macbeth is a supportive or a contrary wife, as Shakespeare exhibits her as an evil character as she continuously uses negative language throughout the play giving her an overpowering presence on stage. Lady Macbeth’s character contradicts with the roles of women in the Elizabethan Era as they were regarded as their husband’s possessions and weren’t entitled to an opinion. A stereotypical Elizabethan woman was expected to be innocent, gentle and dutiful as they were inferior to men. In the same way the lady from the lab presents her desires through a dramatic monologue that runs throughout Robert Browning’s poem. The use of this allows the reader to be involved in the description of the situation that the lady is currently undergoing, and this is simply her cheating ‘Lover’.
The Loss of Subjectivity: Lady Macbeth as Unconscious of Macbeth Among most female characters in Shakespeare’s works, Lady Macbeth, who has been attracting attention and debates for centuries is ambiguous in identity and subjectivity. Her fascination lies in the masks beneath which the evil and good counterparts with the other self restlessly seek to hide or show: she is the dedicated wife, sacrificing her womanliness to help realize her husband’s ambition; she is the “fiend-like queen” (V.viii.35)[1], possessing the cruelty of a man, but is born as a woman. However, it is this mysterious woman that lacks the most fundamental component of her subjectivity, a name. As the only female protagonist in The Tragedy of Macbeth[2], she does not have a name of her own unlike Ophelia (Hamlet), or Portia (The Merchant of Venice), or Desdemona (Othello). She is the Lady Macbeth: she, lacking subjectivity, is not defined in her own right but a reflection of Macbeth’s mental status.
Miller leaves the audience with a negative impression of the affect that these with power can have over others as he conveys the suffering that can result from such situations. Abigail lies to conceal her affair, and to prevent charges of witchcraft. Lowering her eyes to Parris, Abigail innocently pleads “we never conjured spirits”. Abigail shifts the focus away from herself, finding an avenue of power and takes full advantage of it. Ruthlessly accusing others of witchcraft she changes her story as a desperate act of self-preservation, “I danced with the devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss his hand.
Macbeth is a play that gives insight on the evil and darkness of a person being. This play shows how a man changes his very conscience and goes against his very morals which in the end destroys everything he has, even the relationship of his beloved wife Lady Macbeth. The being of the story they have a very close and intimate relationship but as the play progresses their relationship vanishes till it is like it was never there. The very first sign we have of how lord and Lady Macbeth relationship is when Lord Macbeth sends her a letter in which he tells her everything that the witches have said about how he will be king and how they said he would be thane of Cawdor and he became it. He also says in his letter “Lady Macbeth “This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou might’st not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant off what greatness is promised thee.”(1.5.9-12) He gives her created for everything that it about to happen to him and he wants to share with her the power and riches that come with all that will happen to him and her.
#1 Hamlet portrays how society would perceive a submissive woman in the Elizabethan era. This shows the deception, naivety and sly behaviour women were thought to have. “I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. God hath given you one face, and you make yourself another; you jig, you amble, and you lisp and nickname god’s creatures, make your wantonness your ignorance” (III.i. 143-137) This quote reflects the argument because it is evident that men in the Elizabethan era had a patriarchal attitude which caused them to treat women with no respect.
A Jacobean audience would not approve of Lady Macbeth as she becomes a threat to the patriarchal society by emasculating the men of the play. Lady Macbeth is first introduced in Act One, scene five where she is reading a letter she has received from Macbeth. She calls for the dark spirits to visit her and take control. She could be doing his for two reasons, because she herself is evil and seeks the help of her natural allies, or because she sees her human weaknesses and needs to be strengthened from outside. In this scene, she claims ‘unsex me here’.
“Is Hamlet less about revenge and more about fear and loathing of female sexuality?” In Shakespeare’s revenge tragedy Hamlet, a number of themes, including remarriage and death, contribute to Hamlet’s harmatia, his fatal flaw. It can be argued that the Hamlet’s hamartia, his fear and loathing of female sexuality, provoked by his father’s murder and his mother’s hasty remarriage, makes Hamlet a play more concerned with female sexuality, than revenge. Shakespeare uses Hamlet as a vehicle for Elizabethan society’s views on incestuous relationships: that to marry any member of your family was wrong, which was based on the Old Testament book of Leviticus 20:21. Gertrude’s incestuous relationship with Hamlet’s Uncle is the main focus of his loathing; their relationship appals him, “...sweat of an enseamed bed stewed in corruption” Hamlet claims their union is unnatural; Shakespeare’s choice of repugnant imagery lends emphasis to his reaction. ‘Enseame’, the fat that is produced from a cooked animal, reflects the repulsion which Hamlet feels towards his Uncle.
This forebodes the death of Macbeth and also Lady Macbeth by suggesting that they will not be able to kill the King and live a normal, guilt free life afterwards. Lady Macbeth then creates irony as she mocks Macbeth for thinking this way, she refers to him as a ‘coward’ and insists that this murder is necessary. This part of the play is extremely significant as we realise just how harsh Lady Macbeth is and how far she would really go. She removes any maternal characteristics that she may have had by explaining that her lack of pity would extend so far, that she would murder a baby. “Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out”.