This essay is only my opinions and interpretation of female characters in the play by William Shakespeare. When I studied the play at the university, I mainly focused three main themes on the play: the supernatural power, the hallucination of the Statement ‘fair is foul and foul is fair’ spoken by three witches. Actually there is powerful women force in the play. Lady Macbeth, the main character in the play possesses unusual power over her husband, Macbeth.
At the same time, Macbeth is persuaded by the prophecies by three witches, that he shall be King of Scotland. Shakespeare seem to portray his woman character by the resemblance of the Queen at that time. But the normal women at that time were in lower status in society. So it is believed that women were not allowed to act on the stage. That is why Shakespeare made some gender switches in his characters. In the play, Lady Macbeth is in the mixed role of feminine and masculine.
Moreover, the word “unsex” is the most important and it has been the subject to debate among different scholars. In my opinion, this word carries the theme of gender and inequality in the plays. Lady Macbeth asks the evil spirits to unsex her firmly. She is not satisfied with her feminine quality, that is too emotional, delicate, obedient and deadly weak and weary. So she tries to avoid the feminine quality, that is complete womanhood. She wants to possess masculine quality, instead. And another important fact on gender to point out is witches with beards.
The Essay on Macbeth – Character Changes
"This dead butcher and his fiend like queen", is the way in which Malcolm describes Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Describe the way in which these two characters changed during the course of the play. At the beginning of the play Macbeth is seen as a courageous soldier who is loyal to the King but is corrupted from the witches prophecies and by his and Lady Macbeth's ambition. This is because of the ...
Shakespeare makes so much confusion on gender in this play. The witches represent evil and women at the same time. Here is the food for thought whether Shakespeare is a misogynist or not. In my opinion, he is not of that guy. In other plays, Shakespeare’s women characters are lovely and helpful to their beloved ones around them. for example, in the play, “Merchant of the Venice” the girl pretends to be a boy and help to solve the problem that her husband encounters.
Also in Romeo and Juliet, Juliet wisefully plan in her own ways to meet her lover and she manages well for their future. But this plan is ruined by rash and careless Romeo.
