Thinking Activity
This blog is in response to the thinking Activity of the Play Macbeth assigned by Dilip Barad sir. In this blog I'm going to evaluate the character of Lady Macbeth as a Feminine figure of the Play.
1) Feminist Reading of Lady Macbeth
The play "Macbeth" is one of masterpieces of William Shakespear. In this play he presents various characters which helps the play to lead it towards its peak. The Ups and Downs of the central character "Macbeth" builds the course of the play "Macbeth". The character "Macbeth" would not do anything without the overall support of his Wife Lady Macbeth, who is also responsible for the downfall of Macbeth. Other characters are also important like Three Witches, who evokes the suppressed desire of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
In this play, there are more male characters than female. There are only two women, Lady Macbeth and Lady Macduff, But both are opposite in nature. But there is not a single scene where two ladies are together. So in this sense, we can evaluate that Shakespeare has presented an inverted image of women, who generally want to be together. There is complete isolation for Lady Macbeth as she has no female companion in the play. Three Witches are also portraying women.
Among all these women characters, Lady Macbeth is different in each way. Shakespeare's portrayal of Lady Macbeth leads us to think more about the concept of Feminism. Whenever we try to analyse a character in Feminist perspective, we first have to know what is the general concept of feminism.
According to Google Dictionary, Meaning of Feminism is
“The advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.”
Before analysing Lady Macbeth as Feminine power, we first have to look towards the situation of women in the time of William Shakespeare.
The role of women during Shakespeare's time was to serve as wives and mothers. Women had little autonomy, and though some women were educated, they were not allowed to work in most professions. A woman's primary societal duties were to marry as her family directed her and to raise children for her husband. Women were expected to be subservient, quiet and homebound, with their primary ambitions entirely confined to marriage, childbirth and homemaking; granted, social status and economic class played into what degree these expectations manifested, with the chief example being Queen Elizabeth herself.
Women in the plays of Shakespeare:-
Shakespeare’s presentation of women in his plays demonstrates his feelings about women and their roles in society. Looking at the types of female roles in Shakespeare demonstrates that women had less freedom than their male counterparts in Shakespeare's time. It's well known that women weren't allowed on the stage during Shakespeare's active years. All of his famous female roles like Desdemona and Juliette were in fact once played by men.
In Shakespeare's tragedies and his plays in general, there are several types of female characters. They influence other characters, but are also often underestimated. Women in Shakespearean plays have always had important roles, sometimes the leading role. Whether they are there to change the story or stabilise it, they are there for a reason. Some women are stronger than others, and their effect on the play is different for each one. They often surpass the male heroes.
Major Women characters of Shakespeare's plays:-
Lady Macbeth, Macbeth
Cleopatra, Antony and Cleopatra
Portia, The Merchant of Venice
Juliet, Romeo and Juliet
Viola, Twelfth Night
Many of Shakespeare’s female characters have also been eager to obtain power, however, attaining power was not as casual as it was for men. Women were not thrust into leadership roles as easily as men were; they had to seek them out. Lady Macbeth from Macbeth, Rosalind from As You Like It, and Tamora from Titus Andronicus are all examples of women who took action to control their own lives and the lives of those around them. This will analyse the power that these three characters assert and will answer the questions of how do women assert power in Shakespeare, and, what role does gender play in power?
Lady Macbeth is one of the most dynamic characters in all of Shakespeare's work because no other character is as manipulative as she is.
Lady Macbeth is considered one of the main characters in William Shakespeare's Macbeth. She is the wife of Macbeth who kills the king of Scotland (Duncan) and becomes the king of Scotland. Macbeth is instigated by his wife Lady Macbeth to commit this heinous crime and she in her role becomes the queen of England. Lady Macbeth has a high rank in relationships, and also has the ability to face danger. In the beginning of the play, we can get an idea that Lady Macbeth is very successful at rejecting her Femaleness. She is in control of her own actions.
In Act 2,Scene V, we are introduced to Lady Macbeth with a letter by Macbeth to give her news about he is now a Thane of Cowdar and prophecies By Three Witches. Lady Macbeth’s first lines in the play do not consist of her own words, but her husband’s, which signals that her character’s primary motivations are invested towards her husband. Once she has finished reading the letter, she immediately assumes that the witches’ premonitions will come true but also expresses her worries. She states,
“Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way:” (1.5)
In the same scene she further says that,
“Come you spirits
That tend on moral thoughts, unsex me here”
She asks for the spirits to "unsex" her. By asking this, Lady Macbeth is asking the spirits to rid her of her female frailty and imbue her with the masculine strength of will that is necessary to accomplish the deed that she has decided to push her husband into doing.
In scene 7,when Macbeth refuses to kill King Duncan, she says that When he first agreed to kill Duncan, he was like a man but he is now not acting like a man.
“When you durst do it, then you were a man;"
"And, to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man.”
By the Words of Lady Macbeth she challenges the Masculinity of Macbeth and agitates him to Kill Duncan. She knows the minus points of her husband and that's why she tries to ignite it.
“Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums
And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.”
“Bring forth men-children only;
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males.”
Both the dialogues present and somewhat challenge the Motherhood of Lady Macbeth. In the first dialogue, she is trying to shame Macbeth for questioning their plan. She uses the image of a child to make a graphic statement about her own ambition and capacity for violence. By describing herself as a tender and loving mother who nonetheless would have killed her own child before she would abort a plan to seize power, Lady Macbeth disrupts the typical idea of what women and mothers are like. She uses this image to make her husband that he is being unmanly by doubting their scheme. While in the second dialogue, by words of Macbeth Shakespeare presents Sarcasm that a Lady who tends to kill her own child can only produce male children- for that he uses - 'undaunted Mettle'. So this line presents her not as a normal woman, who was expected to have a certain level of Kindness.
All these initial dialogues are very essential to develop the whole play as well as the character Of Lady Macbeth. In act 2, scene 2, she admits her femininity by the lines,
“Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done’t.—My husband!”
She attempts to murder King Duncan, but that time she sees resemblance of his father and that’s what prevents her to kill him. By the line, we can observe that in the very strong character of Lady Macbeth, there lies a soft female tendency in the corner.
In Act 3, scene 4, when Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo, Lady Macbeth handles the situation in a very well manner. In Act 5, Lady Macbeth is not like what she was at the beginning. Not strong as she was earlier. She is faded by her own deeds. Her words,
“The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?—What, will these hands ne’er be clean? No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that: you mar all with this starting.”
“Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!”
She has gone mad at what she has done. When Macbeth asks to doctor about the health of Lady Macbeth, Doctor states that,
“Not so sick, my lord,
As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies,
That keep her from her rest.”
So she is now completely gone mad, as she can’t sleep and continuously washes her hand to remove imagery Blood from her hands, which only she sees out of what she has done. The murder is done by both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. But at the end of the play we can see that punishment for both is different. Lady Macbeth attempts suicide out of deep grief and fancy, while Macbeth dies at battlefield as a soldier, which shows his courage. In this manner we can get an idea that both have done the same thing together though they get death in a different way and which presents sometimes gender bias also in the play. There are so many debates in this matter.
There are several points which Lady Macbeth presents via her life and her doings in the play.
Ambition
Masculinity and Femininity
Presence of Mind
Her cunningness
Fourth Witch
Her Guilt
Ambition:-
In the Act I-Scene V, Lady Macbeth enters with the letter sent by macbeth. After reading the letter, She says,
“Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it.”
So, After reading the letter her ambition to be the queen also ignited and unchecked and she becomes driving force behind the murder of Duncan. The thought of being a queen pushes her and makes her act despicably. She now tries to convince her husband and when he refuses to do that, she raises questions towards his masculinity. Macbeth would not murder Duncan if Lady Macbeth would not force him.
Masculinity and Femininity/Presence of Mind and Cunningness
Both of these are the chief characteristics of Lady Macbeth. When Macbeth doubts if the plan would fail, what they will do because after exposure they will be killed. That time we can find Presence of Mind and Cunningness going parallel in Lady Macbeth when she says,
“And we’ll not fail…, The unguarded Duncan.”
The line shows that she has plotted death in an excellent way that there is no scope for the failure. These lines are also very important when we talk about Femininity and Masculinity. Normally it is believed that only men plan all these things, not women as they are emotional and delicate towards their nature. Here, Lady Macbeth is presented as an opposite to the female psyche.
Fourth Witch
In many critical works of the play “Macbeth”, Lady Macbeth is presented as the Fourth Witch of the play.
In the play, Three Witches ignites a personal desire of Macbeth but, if Lady Macbeth would force him to kill Duncan, she would not have done that. It is also believed that destruction of Macbeth is not only because of prophecies of Witches but also because of the desire and force of Lady Macbeth. Shakespeare's witches are not the only characters who help push Macbeth's natural ambitions over the edge. His wife, Lady Macbeth, possesses a similar desire for Macbeth to become king.
Her Guilt:-
The Guilt of Lady Macbeth is presented in her Soliloquy, in Act V where she is continuously rubbing her hands. She is also suffering from Somnambulism. She says that,
“Yet here’s a spot.
Out, damned spot! out, I say! One; two. Why, then ’tis time to do’t.
Hell is murky! Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard?
What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?
Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!”
She commits suicide out of Guilt what she has done before. So now she is completely opposite what she was earlier at the beginning.
Research on lady Macbeth as a Feminist Character:-
So many scholars have attempted to justify or analyze the character of Lady Macbeth in terms of Feminism. Here I have Quoted four of them to Justify my own writing.
A Brief Look at Feminism in Shakespeare's Macbeth
By Marion A. Davis
Lady Macbeth, while being notably strong compared to other members of her gender, has no way to enact her schemes as she is kept isolated from other women during the course of the play. While her strength is great, she is not powerful enough alone to deal with a murder. She does not reveal the secret of their murderous deeds because she is a woman and thus inherently weak, but she reveals the secret because she is a woman and thus has been selectively isolated from finding strength in number.
Shakespeare’s Violent Women: A Feminist Analysis of Lady Macbeth
By Camila Reyes
Lady Macbeth utilises rhetorical violence to push Macbeth to redecide, she relies on an inherently masculine form of gaining power to advance her husband’s position. She does not advocate for matriarchy or As for her own power when not connected to any man but instead, exerts her efforts to uphold patriarchy. Lady Macbeth advocates for the ascension of her closest male relation to the crown, thus, fulfilling an extreme version of her role as a wife. Lady Macbeth relies on rhetoric to defy gender roles, as her emasculation of her husband goes against the early modern ideal of women as silent and meek. Her violence, however, simultaneously goes against the early modern notion of women as silent.
The controversial character of Shakepeare’s Lady Macbeth
By Sabine Buchholz
Lady Macbeth, has transcended the gender roles of the time period in order to establish herself as equal to, if not superior to, her male counterparts. She has become the female version of a man seeking greatness. Shakespeare has created a violent, yet admirable female role model through the portrayal of Lady Macbeth. Whether Lady Macbeth should really be regarded as an admirable role model, however, is very doubtful, since many of her ambitious thoughts and attitudes make her appear so very cruel that sympathy can hardly be maintained. She even speaks of her willingness to kill her own child provided that this helps to make her unscrupulous.
Masking Femininity: Women and Power in Shakespeare's Macbeth, As You Like It, and Titus Andronicus
By Kelly Sorge
The play ends with full masculine power because of the witches prophecy. Any form of femininity that usually gives a female power does not do so in Macbeth. Women in Macbeth have to mask their femininity in order to get power. Lady Macbeth is initially very successful at rejecting her femaleness. She is in control of her own and Macbeth’s actions. Once Duncan is murdered, Macbeth gains back his confidence and subjects Lady Macbeth to a lesser role. This shows that the power that comes with masking femininity is only temporary and cannot be kept for an extended period of time. As seen from the final prophecy, there is no power in womanliness in Macbeth.
Here I have embedded a link to the Oxford University education press/blog. It argues. Whether Lady Macbeth is Warrior or Worrier.
To conclude, we can say that Lady Macbeth is very different from Shakespeare's other female characters in each way. And she is the real Feminine Power in the Plays of William Shakespeare.
No comments:
Post a Comment