Bruke's English Journal

Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a power hungry and vindictive women, whose character is against the stereotypes of of a Jacobean woman. By changing Lady Macbeth’s tone through carefully choosing her language choices and her line structure, Shakespeare creates this unique character.

Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as persuasive and as wanting more power. As soon as Macbeth is informed of the prophecy that he will be king, from the witches, he tells Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth starts persuading Macbeth to kill the current king, king Duncan, and rule Scotland, with Lady Macbeth by his side. Macbeth opposes the idea of killing Duncan at first, but at the end he is broken and Lady Macbeth’s will is done. This implies that Lady Macbeth is very persuasive and can control Macbeth,’we’ll not fail’ Lady Macbeth to Macbeth. In the Jacobean era, the wife would not be able or allowed to argue with her husband, however Lady Macbeth made Macbeth kill the king, which suggests that she wants to be powerful and doesn’t care how she gets it. The theme in this scene is power and the hunger for it. Power is the fuel that Lady Macbeth craves and is the reason for many deaths.

Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a deceptive woman, who uses the fact that she is a woman as a weapon. ‘ Why, worthy thane, you do unbend your noble strength to think.’. Lady Macbeth is talking to Macbeth. She begins by praising him,’worthy’, however ends the speech with orders and telling Macbeth that he did things wrong, she also insults him ‘infirm of purpose’. Macbeth would be proud of himself because Lady Macbeth is his wife and her opinion means a lot to him. Lady Macbeth is skillful with words, such as ‘worthy’ and ‘my husband’. Macbeth is the man in the relationship, but he still needs Lady Macbeth’s praise and acceptance, which is against the stereotype,which is that the wife is to watch the kids, at home, and her husband succeed in his chosen career, which implies Lady Macbeth is more than the normal Jacobean woman. This would intrigue the audience because they probably would never have thought that a woman would be as powerful to act like Lady Macbeth. The audience of males will be surprised and uncomfortable because this character is unusual. They would dislike and distrust her.

Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as close to being supernatural or a woman who wants to be a man. He does this by carefully choosing her language choices.’Unsex me here[…]make thick my blood’. Lady Macbeth knows about the prophecy and the quotes are taken out of a soliloquy. The entire tone of the soliloquy is dark because of the vocabulary choices. Lady Macbeth is alone which implies that anything she says and does is the true Lady Macbeth. ‘Come you spirits’ she is talking to spirits. She asks them to ‘unsex’ her, Lady Macbeth wants to be stripped of her feminine spirit and stereotypes. If you are a man you can kill, kill king Duncan and Macbeth will be king. This connotes that she is desperate for power.

The second point is that she is talking to greater beings. This suggests that Lady Macbeth has some business with the supernatural, maybe the witches or she is a witch. She could be mad and be talking to herself. ‘Smoke of hell’ this is a metaphor so that what she might do will be covered up, or we can take it literally, as if this was a spell. We link hell to the devil, in the Jacobean era women would give their souls and have intercourse with the devil in trade for their powers  that will make them a witch. Therefore the theory that Lady Macbeth is a witch is likely. The theme is this scene is supernatural. this theme is important in the play because without the witches there would be no story. The audiences will be uncomfortable and quite scared of her because witches can kill people. They would be immersed into the play because of the plot.

Shakespeare creates the impression that Lady Macbeth is more powerful and dominant in her relationship, by changing the line structure and iambic pentameter. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have a discussion in Act 3 Scene 2, Shakespeare allows Lady Macbeth to interrupt or end Macbeth’s iambic pentameter, twice. This suggests that she is overpowering, which is against the stereotype. ‘You must leave this’ Lady Macbeth says to Macbeth. This is imperative, which you can link to wanting more power.

In conclusion Lady Macbeth is a mysterious character, who leaves many questions for the audience. What is clear is that she is not a normal Jacobean woman, she wants power and the ability to control. The audience will dislike the character because she would not fit into society.