Thinking activity
This blog is in response to the thinking activity of play macbeth, assigned by dr. Dilip barad sir and this blog is about faminist reading of lady macbeth.
Introduction-
Macbeth is tragedy, a five act play written by william shakespeare. The full title of the macbeth is “ The tragedy of macbeth.” It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It describes the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power. The play Macbeth most clearly reflects his relationship with King James, who was patron of Shakespeare's acting company. Macbeth is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy, and it was first published in the folio of 1623, from a prompt book.
Q-(1) feminist reading of lady macbeth
William Shakespeare's tragic play Macbeth is one of his best masterpieces, and in this play where evil is of high importance. In this play there were less female characters than male characters, there were lady macbeth and lady macduff. They were two major female characters in the play, Lady Macbeth characterized as evil, and a cruel lady, on the other hand Lady Macduff is a loving mother. Right from the beginning of the play we get to know her devilish nature and cruel intentions, if we look at lady macduff she is the totally opposite character of lady macbeth. In the whole play they did not appear together, their character appeared separately.
“ Everything is but what is not '' and “fair is foul and foul is fair '' are two quotes that best characterize the reversal of order in the tragedy of macbeth. Lady Macbeth wanted her husband to become king, and she was ready to gain her ambition.
Lady Macbeth was the strongest character of Shakespeare's play. She is different from all female characters, she didn't have more compassion than other female characters had.
We would also go through about the condition of female in shakespearean era, and about feminism, basically feminism is the belief that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men, But in shakespearean era women did not have much rights than men had.
Women in 16 th century england, and female characters on the elizabethan stage-
The position of women in shakespear’s time was very poor, they depended on their husbands and had to submit to them just like the whole nation had to submit to the ruler.
Since women were not allowed to hold certain offices or go to university, they were practically excluded from public life, they just ran the house and gave birth to children. They wrap around these things, by the time Macbeth was performed the first time there were not even actresses on the stages. All parts of the play were played by men. Young boys usually played the parts of women. In Macbeth there are for example only two actual female parts, that's why female characters were only a part of a play if really necessary.
Various critics pointed out the irony that the actors in Macbeth play who are at the same time very masculine. Lady macbeth makes an ironic reference to her own sex and the witches wear beards. We gone also evaluate female characters in shakespear’s play.
Female characters in shakespear’s play-
All main female characters seem to have the same tragic element attached to them, namely their early unnatural death, potter sees this early death as an erotic quality which seems to be inherent in all of shakespeare’s female characters.
Here describes some of Shakespeare's women characters.
Desdemona
Lady macbeth
Ophelia
Gertrude
All women seem to have loaded guilt upon them prior to their death. Lady macbeth is guilty of at least helping in carring out a murder. Gertrude is guilty of marrying so quickly after her husband’s death. But finding guilt in Desdemona and Ophelia seems too hard to manage, Desdemona finds guilt by her husband but the audience knows she is not, while Ophelia may be found guilty by the reader to have betrayed Hamlet by not requiring his love. Apart from guilt, obedience seems to play a major role in the context of the female characters.
Lady macbeth-
Lady Macbeth is one of the major characters of the play “Macbeth”, she is introduced to the play in act 1, scene 5. She is necessary for the tragedy since the main characters simply need an interlocutor.
When lady macbeth enters with the letter in scene 5 she gets to know all about that the witches prophesied to macbeth. Her monologue describes her evil intentions, right from the beginning of the play.
Also we could know that she invited spirits to fill her with cruelty !
Come , you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me, from the crown to the toe, top full of direst cruelty !
Thus she also fully fills the function to urge macbeth to commit the crime , when he don’t want to did that.
“ when you durst do it , when you were a man”
She tells him this later, she is the one who drieves her husband to murder of duncan. She gives rise to Macbeth's decision to do that crime and deadens all scrumples in him. To be his wife she has the biggest influence on him.
It is also clear that Lady Macbeth's true aim is her wish to be on top of social order; a rise in the society is therefore her greatest temptation.
She appears with Macbeth's letter that reported that the witches met him on the day of success, and they have more in them than mortal knowledge.`` Macbeth calls his wife my dearest partner of greatness. Lady macbeth instantly states about her husband that-
“ Yet do I fear thy nature? It is too full o'th milk of human kindness, to catch the nearest way.”
It is striking that the terms “fear” and “human kindness” are brought together. Lady Macbeth simply fears a quality which is normally a positive feature ! Her plan to kill Duncan is therefore in her mind right from the start. Lady Macbeth naged Macbeth to kill duncan. Because of Lady Macbeth's influence Macbeth killed duncan.
In act 1, scene 5, in this scene she tells us that she knows her husband's nature very well. She also presented in contrast to her husband who seems to be less cruel. Her plan to drive macbeth to the deed is expressed when she intends to “ pour my spirits in thine ear”
In act 1, scene 7, Lady Macbeth questions Macbeth's manliness when he decides they will proceed no further in this business, she calls her husband a coward.
Here manhood is associated with the ability to kill. Instead of doing justice to her female nature she explains she would even kill her own child to achieve royal dignity.
“I have given suck, and know how tender tis to love babe that milks me ; i would , while it was smiling in my face, have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums, and dash’d the brains out, had i sworn as you have done to this.
This shows us how cruel she was, and these words increase the cruel impression lady macbeth has on the audience, as a result the nature and social order will be destroyed.
Here i put an image that is relatable to her
Macbeth is ambitious-
Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's most infamous female characters. Cunning and ambitious, she is one of the protagonists of the play, encouraging and helping Macbeth carry out his bloody quest to become king.
In many respects, Lady Macbeth is more ambitious and power hungry than her husband.
Masculinity and feminity-
Macbeth is also the one with the greatest number of outright evil female characters. Chief among them are the three witches who predict that Macbeth will be king and set the play's action into motion.
Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to kill Duncan by questioning his manhood, Shakespeare equates masculinity with ambition and power.
Lady macbeth’s guilt-
Lady macbeth’s sense of remors soon overwhelmed her, she has nightmares, and in one of famous scene act 5 , scene 1, she tries wash her hands of the blood she imagines has been left behind by the murders.
She is a victim of her own ambition, which complicates her role in the play.
Lady macbeth as fourth witch-
Lady macbeth is sometimes been called “ the fourth witch” or the drama. To goethe she is the super witch. In fact, lady macbeth’s commanding role in murdering dancan, her cruel and witch like approach to the horried deed is simply amazing.
In earlier dramas, there is enough evidence of her essential womanliness. She has invoked te aid of the murdering minister by saying
“Come, to my woman's breast
And take my milk for gall.”
But this is also a very womanly saying of a woman with the full knowledge of her own milk of human kindness.
Moreover, the universal mother is not absent in her is evident when she says-
“ i have given suck and know
How tender it is to love the babe that milk me.”
Her cunningness-
Lady Macbeth is a sly person, able to manipulate her husband, and this ability to manipulate Macbeth makes her partially responsible for the destruction of Macbeth.Lady Macbeth knows that her husband is too kind to kill Duncan without her help she fears.
When she welcomed duncan to her home, her conduct shows that she is perfect in that art of dissembling;
“All our service In every point twice done and then done double
Were poor and single business to contend
Against those honors deep and broad wherewith
Your majesty loads our house."
Her Presence of Mind.
On one occasion only does she lose command of her feelings and forget herself. When she is informed of Duncan's intention to stay at her castle, she betrays her joy at the opportunity presented her, and exclaims:
"Thou'rt mad to say it."
When her husband returns trembling and terror-stricken from the murder, she never loses her presence of mind, but remains calm and even tries to allay his fears. On discovering that Macbeth has forgotten to smear the grooms with blood, and that he has brought away the daggers from the dread chamber, she bids him return and carry out the unfinished details of the plot.
Many scholars write about lady macbeth in term of feminism, here i quoted one of them-
A brief look at feminism in
Shakespeare's "Macbeth".
By marion a. Davis
In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, he presents the conflicting character of Lady Macbeth. Upon receiving her husband’s letter about the witches’ prophecies, she attempts to be like a man in order to exude the strength needed to gain additional social status as royalty. Lady Macbeth appears to be very influential in planning – deciding when and how they should kill King Duncan – and chiding her husband for not acting more like a man; yet, despite these capabilities, she is the main reason for the revealing of the Macbeth’s part in the usurpation of the throne.
Patriarchal society encourages Lady Macbeth to invest herself in the role of mother. Lady Macbeth is seen as selfish and abnormal when she confesses that there is a situation in which she would “dash her child’s brains out”, a very unnatural statement according to patriarchy’s belief that women’s desire to have and protect children is a part of “their natural biological makeup”. Though intelligent and strong at the beginning of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is reduced to an insignificant person haunted by nightmares and guilt as a result of a patriarchal portrayal of her gender.
Here i embedded a link of the youtube video “macbeth character study (ambition and feminist reading) of our respected sir.
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