Lady Macduff Analysis

Although Lady Macduff only appears onstage for a very brief period in the play, her role is very significant. Often times, a person begins to believe that the way that a main character behaves is the norm and is proper. One begins to feel that way in Macbeth, but

She was the character that finally convinced Macbeth to kill Duncan in his own castle, proclaiming “O, never shall sun that morrow see!” (1.6.71-72). She encouraged such betraying behavior as a reaction to Macbeth’s letter about being predicted as the next king of Scotland. Eager to become queen, Lady Macbeth completely disregarded the inner politics of Scotland, her and Macbeth’s morals, the sacred Great Chain of Being, and the Divine Right of Kings. She continues to violate the Chain as she reverses gender roles with Macbeth, verbally abusing him as only a man was allowed to do to a woman (so it was believed then). She consistently degrades Macbeth by calling him a woman, comparing his explanations to “a woman’s story at a winter’s fire, authorized by her grandma” (3.4.78-79). The common belief in 17th century England was that women were far below men on the social ranking scale, so Lady Macbeth’s numerous insults are completely out of line. Eventually she is punished for her interruption in the Great Chain of Being as she becomes insane from guilt. At last, the murder of Duncan comes back to haunt her, causing her to imagine blood on her hands and cry “Out, damned, spot, out, I say!” (5.1.37). In the end, all of her past actions catch up with her and she commits suicide as she wrestles with the burning question, “What, will these hands ne’er be clean?” (5.1.45). Shakespeare justly writes in her demise as she is

In play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s most dominant and frightening female characters, known for her ambitious nature. As Macbeth’s wife, her role is significant in his rise and fall from royalty. During Shakespearean times, women were regarded as weak insignificant beings that were there to give birth and look beautiful. They were not thought to be as intelligent or equal to men. Though in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is the highest influence in Macbeth’s life. Her role was so large; in fact, that she uses her position to gain power, stay strong enough to support her unstable Lord, and fails miserably while their

Lady MacBeth also had a major part in the wrongs committed by MacBeth. It could easily be said that her role was more direct than the witches in that she actually told MacBeth to murder Duncan, and furthermore even convinced him against his own will to do it.

She is most influential person in Macbeth´s downfall, next to the witches. However, her relationship with him goes far deeper then that of the witches. It is my belief that the witches act only as a trigger to start the events in the play, and that Lady Macbeth herself was the driving force behind Macbeth´s actions. It is she who he contacts when he meets the witches, and immediately trusts her with the prophecy he is given.

Duncan’s murder. She has no misgivings about the Witches’ prophecies. As aforesaid, she is a stronger character than Macbeth. She seems to

-What is the purpose of her character? So that women of the forties could empathize with her situation more

People will say that she is just a good wife trying to go after happiness and joy with her husband. All she wanted was power and for him to be king. That did not work out well. Everything just turned against them. But, here is the weakness; Lady Macbeth and Macbeth both fell apart. After they did all that was wrong, they both felt guilt and did not stop thinking about it. Macbeth started having bad dreams and imagining things. Lady Macbeth started sleep walking and fell apart until she finally decided to take her own life. It did not turn out well for both of them. One can say she was trying to help and do well for her and her husband but that is not

As in other works of the time, the gender divide is clear and noticeable. The male-dominated cast contains more major characters with important roles, such as Macbeth, Macduff, and Duncan, and a small host of other lords, soldiers, and commoners. The women, made up of Lady Macbeth, Lady Macduff, and Hecate and her witches, have smaller roles. Stephanie Chamberlain notes the part Lady Macduff plays, saying: “Lady Macduff, Macduff's sad, abandoned wife, is also killed within the play to motivate Macduff into taking the kind of action necessary to defeat the murderous Macbeth: to breathe new life, if you will, into a dying Scotland” (Chamberlain 86). Using a character’s death as motivation has been a popular practice, especially in this time, to advance the development of a character at the cost of the another character. Often the killed character is merely placed in that role to die, reducing the worth of said character. Remarking on his wife’s death, Macbeth says: “She should have died hereafter. There would have been time for such a word” (V.v.17-18). Macbeth’s indifference to her death demonstrates the complete degeneration of her character throughout the play, as the reader comes to feel a shock, which is soon lost upon the following events in the play. Exploring the inequalities between the male and female characters of the play, the restrictions of the time period lead to a misogynistic devaluation of the importance of the women of the

William Shakespeare’s tragedy “Macbeth” completely challenges the idea of traditional gender roles and social norms during the renaissance period. The male characters have many feminine traits while the female characters have many more masculine and manlier traits. This was going entirely against the stereotypical outlook of the roles you’re supposed to play as your gender during that time of history. During the renaissance period women were only expected to clean, cook, and to have babies. Men on the other hand were typically expected to work hard and to provide for the home. Socially women didn’t have power or respect and men were the ones who were supposed to be brave and tough at the best of times and the worst of times. That idea is

Like the witches, Lady Macbeth is crucial to the actual accomplishment of Macbeth's crime. Without her, Macbeth would not have carried out the murder in the first place - "we shall go no further in this business" - and without her timely interventions in gilding the groom's faces with blood and conveniently fainting when Macduff's questions become too insistent, it is unlikely that he would have got away with it. She seems to be just as ambitious as her husband and the plan to kill Duncan is largely hers. She overcomes Macbeth's scruples by both encouragement and scorn:

Lady Macbeth is aware of the fact that she is mentally stronger and has more of a desire to gain power than Macbeth. At one point, she wished that she was a man so that she could do it herself.

Lady Macbeth’s desire for power prompts her interest in controlling Macbeth’s actions. This theme of the relationship between gender and power is key to Lady Macbeth’s character: her husband implies that she is a masculine soul inhabiting a female body, which seems to link masculinity to ambition and violence. Although women were often expected during Shakespeare’s time to be modest, humble, and obedient, Lady Macbeth is actually one of the most explicitly and relentlessly ambitious of all the characters Shakespeare created. She is a woman who defies the stereotypes of her culture, which assumed that most women were or should be unambitious. At one point, she wishes that she were not a woman so that she could kill Duncan herself. A character

Shakespeare grew up in the late 1500s when women were not valued for anything but bearing children and being good wives to their husbands. In Macbeth, this ideal women is represented by Lady Macduff. She is an example of all the positive traits that women possess, such as “devotion” to their family and “[prioritizing] the raising of her children” (Tucker). In Act 4 Scene 2 of Macbeth, we see this kindness and motherliness as she comforts her

husband when she had the raging desire to kill Duncan. Even though Duncan respected Lady