But it isn’t just a role reversal in her behaving as a man might. Lady Macbeth is more indecent and conniving because she has maintained her manipulative feminisms which ironically diminish her husband, making him appear weak and without resolve. In the end when she finally confronts her own conscience to know how horrible she has been, the Lady collapses, disintegrates and disappears. How awful. Over and over and over again Lady Macbeth challenges her husband’s manhood and his will to kill and seize Duncan’s throne in Act I:
To what extent is Desdemona presented as a tragic figure in Act 4 Scene 3 and Act 5 Scene 2? How could an audience react to her death? On the one hand, Desdemona is presented as a strong female character; publically defying her father by marrying Othello, arguing with Iago regarding the role of women and breaking free of the gender expectations of a woman in the 16th century by denying her privileged but sheltered life to marry a black man of her own choosing, a hugely rebellious act at a time when women were seen as lesser and were expected to obey their fathers and then husbands unconditionally. However, on the other hand she is portrayed as naive, and full of doubts and fears. She does not stand up to Othello when it really matters, and accepts her own death far too easily, even to go as far as selecting the bed sheets she is to be murdered on.
When she is introduced as being mad in the play in Act IV, scene 5, she makes many references to her father's death through a song she sings. Ophelia realizes "He is gone," and that when she has a problem she will no longer be able to run to her father as she does in Acts I and II. She feels as though she can't go on without her father because she is such a weak character. It is clear that one of the reasons why she goes insane is because her father has been murdered. Ophelia's madness can also be attributed to the fact that she trusts Hamlet and falls in love with him, only to have that love unreturned.
The two texts present a woman from a disadvantaged point of view and how she struggles to establish a foothold in a male-dominated society. In Hamlet, analysis of the plight of women falls on Ophelia and Gertrude. The two women endure chauvinistic suffering and finally break loose. Gertrude transgresses the patriarchal bounds of femininity by marrying soon after her husband’s death, much to Hamlet’s chagrin. Consequently, he refers to her as “frail” (Act 1, Scene 2, line 146).
She is completely unable to control her feelings for her only love, “I must love a loathed enemy” [I, v, 139]. The way that Shakespeare uses “must” is very interesting because although the households are enemies she must go against her parents will because she loves Romeo. No longer did her parents support her instead she was rejected. When Juliet rebels against marring Paris, “He shall not make me a joyful bride” [III,v,117]. Lord Capulet becomes enraged of this defiant behaviour, “An you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend / an you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets, / For, by my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee” [III, v, 192-4].
Euripides has been accused of being a misogynist as well as the world's first feminist. In your view, do the portrayals of Medea and Jason allow such contradictory interpretations? Euripides' Greek tragic play, 'Medea', depicts a wife's desire to right the wrongs done to her by her husband and in the pursuit of satisfaction, she commits the heinous of crimes, infanticide. The play is set in a patriarchal society, where women are treated as mere tools to satisfy their male partners. Euripides' portrays Medea as both a weak and strong woman, being able to stand up to some of the male characters and simultaneously succumb to their presence.
Beatrice is cynical and witty; she doesn’t conform when it comes to the role of women in Elizabethan time. In terms of how males view females, there is a theme of cuckoldry (men who married unfaithful wives). This is shown in the first scene when Leonato confirms that Hero is his daughter, ‘Her mother hath many times told me so’, a joke at her expense, implying she is unfaithful to him. In a conversation between Claudio and Benedick, they talk about Hero. Claudio asks if he ‘noted’ her, Benedick tells him he did not, but he ‘looked on her’.
Lady Macbeth’s Direct Influence of Macbeth The downfall of Macbeth is caused by two unparalleled sides of the same road that is merely Macbeth’s own personal weak conscious and the dominated physiological abuse of Lady Macbeth. The constant manipulation of Lady Macbeth directed at her husband operates as an assault to his duties as a man and spouse, along with substituting her husband’s ambitions and aspirations with her own thriving greed for power. The ability to think to beyond what is needed encourages not only the collapse of sanity in Macbeth but also the rationality of Lady Macbeth. “What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our pow’r to accompt? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?”
She threatened Macbeth, ‘live a coward in thine own esteem’ (Act 1 Scene 7), by questioning his manhood and calling him a coward. She seemed to be in control and took leadership over her husband usually dictating his actions. She had him in the palm of her hand. The one time when Macbeth decided to do what was right and stand up to his wife he failed and still went along with her plan. The one time when we knew that Lady Macbeth was still human and still had feelings was towards the end of the play when the guilt drives her mad and she commits suicide.
The story of Medea, written by Euripides, is a romantic tragedy that ends in an unexpected way. Throughout the play, it is easy to feel sorry for Medea who has devoted herself to Jason, only to have him leave her and her children for another woman and a better life. However, readers will begin to despise Medea as her final revenge on Jason is to kill her own children. Even though Medea knows it is wrong, this paper will argue whether Medea murders her children out of selfishness or out of love? Medea fell in love with Jason the moment she met him.