The Portrayal Of Women Macduff And Macbeth example essay topic

Before and after Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, an evil character in a play would be a warrior and always a man. Women were shown as the "Damsels in Distress" while men were shown as the great fighters and brains of the play. Shakespeare completely changes these factors in Macbeth. There are, of course, men and women but the play has several characters who have an unknown sex, for instance the witches and Hecate. The main objective of any play is to let the audience differentiate between good and bad.

Shakespeare does this well. He has a source of innocence and a source of evil. The most ironic thing about his choice of characters is that both Innocence and Evil are played by women: Lady Macduff and Lady Macbeth. Lady Macduff is a feminine, motherly and we assume friendly person, while Lady Macbeth is scheming, masculine and two faced; she quotes early on in the play, "make thick my blood".

This is a sign that she denies her sexuality and that she wants the power of a man. In general terms, though, she doesn't want to bear children. A suitable reason for why the majority of female characters in the play are unisexual is that the parts were played by men in the theatres. In the 17th century, women were unimportant, used primarily to produce an heir to an estate. Women were forbidden to work in the theatres, behind stage or on.

This made comedies easy to act, but tragedies more difficult. During this period, there was a large focus on objectification. This is portrayed in the play. Lady Macduff is brutally killed by the murderers, sent by Macbeth. If she meant something important or she was a man perhaps, she would not have been killed as if she did not matter. What is in such contrast to these last points mentioned, is the way that Macbeth talks and respects Lady Macbeth.

He treats her as an equal to start with and then ends up idolizing her and lowering his status. This type of attitude from husband to wife was not typical of the 17th century. Men were the top of the household. Lady Macbeth is very similar to Hecate. It has often been said that the two characters could be played by the same actress for two simple reasons: because Lady Macbeth and Hecate are never on stage together and also because they are so alike.

They both believe they are greater than everyone else, want power and most of all want a different gender. Hecate preaches to the witches, as if they are her disciples, while Lady Macbeth talks to Macbeth as if he is a lesser being than her. Women are not represented in a classical way. The female characters are either similar or abstract.

The witches are fantastic characters. In looks and behaviour they are thoroughly mad, while it is clear that they are very clever women. They can foretell the future, yet they do not tell the whole truth. For example, when they tell him "the power of man, for none of woman born, shall harm Macbeth". This is a reference of betrayal and telling the truth, but not the entire truth. For later on we find that Macduff was "not of woman born".

This of course is the final twist to a bloody, intriguing tragedy. The way in which women are represented in Macbeth is, (surprisingly because Shakespeare lived in a sexist period) moderately balanced. He does, for Lady Macduff's character, stick to the traditional roles of women. Yet for the others, like Lady Macbeth, he shows every bad section a woman could have: ruthlessness, madness, masculinity and an urge to over ule. This reminds us that, after all, it was Eve who took the apple first, and Adam who followed.