By her calling Macbeth “… a coward…” she Eichhorn 2 is forcing him to do what she wants no matter if will permantaly affect her husband. Another example that shows that Lady Macbeth will do anything to get her way was when she said this “as I stand there unsex me here now.”(Act II Scene iii) This part was put in there to show that she
“Who weep for the waste of sturdy hips” (line12) is mentioned in “In the Counselor’s Waiting Room” thus showing that the mothers of the two daughters are criticizing the two girls in the poem. Typically, each gender must be attracted to the opposite sex; but if this is challenged by anyone they are censured and become an outcast in society. Evidently, in the poems mentioned above, being a woman and acting out of societal norms causes others to criticize the individual and condemn them for the choices they have made. Moreover, the literary devices and elements within the poems are quite different. Within “The Silence of Women”, Rosenberg’s diction is effective in that she creates an image and
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.
Women are the weaker sex in this play: they are forced into giving into male power by doing what they are told; which is expected of them. Characters like Beatrice do not conform: she is the complete opposite to what a woman should have been like in Elizabethan times. Women were expected to be quiet and obedient. She, however, is a loud, aggressive and sarcastic character, and she does not obey the commands of any man. If anything she gives commands, ordering Benedick to “kill Claudio”.
Lastly, they are both confused and mostly completely unaware of their surroundings. Through their deaths, Gertrude and Ophelia highlight the position of women within this tragedy; they are the victims of their male counterparts’ corruption and deceit. Ophelia, however, is more of a victim of her unfortunate death than Gertrude. The ideal woman from Shakespearean times differs greatly from an ideal woman in the twenty-first century. A young woman was expected to be delicate, polite and dependent on the men in their lives.
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’.
Toward the end of the play he became extremely depressed. He felt depressed because of the stress that Lady Macbeth put him through. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, took her power to go against people that wanted her power. She had no guilt of her immoral acts. Lady Macbeth was one Shakespeare’s most courageous female characters.
I believe that she is entirely responsible and will be arguing this by outlining some of the things she did and said. In act one, scene five, Lady Macbeth hears of Macbeth's meeting with the three witches and already starts to contemplate whether or not Macbeth has the courage to carry out whatever is necessary to become king. This is evident as Lady Macbeth ponders to herself: "Yet do I fear thy nature, it is too full o' th' milk of human kindness," which means that she thinks Macbeth is too good and kind to take what he should not have. Lady Macbeth immediately decides that she will have to assist Macbeth in his evil deeds when she learns that King Duncan will be stopping the night at their castle. When she says "Come you spirits that tend on murderous thoughts, unsex me," and "make thick my blood, stop th'access and passage to remorse," she is already calling on evil spirits to take away her feminine nature, and to stop her feeling any pity, remorse or compassion; Lady Macbeth is determined to assist Macbeth in murdering Duncan.
But, she is afraid of his personality ‘too full o’th milk of human kindness’ and decides to take matters into her own hands. This is also the scene where we hear her first famous soliloquy which is ‘unsex me here’ when she calls on the evil spirits. Really, she wants to be the same as the three witches, but because of who she is, she has to repress all her inner feelings and her conscience in order to carry on with her plan to murder Duncan. She has to be two-faced. When Macbeth returns later in the scene, she immediately pounces onto him and tries to persuade him to murder the King and she says it in a very manipulative way.
Curley’s wife emerges as a relatively complex and interesting character. Although her purpose is rather simple in the book’s opening pages—she is the “tramp,” “tart”, and “bitch” that threatens to destroy male happiness and longevity—her appearances later in the novella become more complex. When she confronts Lennie, Candy, and Crooks in the stable, she admits to feeling a kind of shameless dissatisfaction with her life. Her vulnerability at this moment and later—when she admits to Lennie her dream of becoming a movie star—makes her utterly human and much more interesting than the stereotypical vixen in fancy red shoes. However, it also reinforces the novella’s grim worldview.