Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Women (Ambition (Ambition is shown to be unnatural in women - illustrated…
Women
Ambition
-
Lady Macbeth is shown to be an ambitious woman; it is she who persuades Macbeth to kill Duncan; O never / shall sun that morrow see
However, Lady Macbeth is also shown to be an unnatural women - she asks spirits... (to) unsex me here and take my milk for gall - shows her ridding herself of her maternal and caring milk in order to be able to become cruel enough to commit the deeds - shows how she feels her feminine qualities are a weakness and will impair her from completing her fell purpose
As such, Shakespeare shows ambition, cruelty and violence to be unnatural in women
Could be presenting women in a positive light, as such qualities that make them able to commit murder are not natural and feminine
Or, could be sexist in saying that it is not natural for a woman to be ambitious - to aim above her position, as they should be content in where they are, and if they are ambitious, then they are considered evil
-
Lady Macbeth
She is portrayed as a rather atypical woman for the time; she is referred to as Macbeth's dearest partner of greatness - unconventional for the time for him to refer to her as his partner as if they were equals - women were traditionally seen as inferior to their husbands
She is seen to retain control of certain situations where Macbeth does not have control ie after Duncan's murder (give me the daggers) and the banquet scene (stand not upon the order of your going / but go at once) - she is still the more powerful in the relationship - this obvs changes
However, again, her being stronger than Macbeth is seen as unnatural for women; by the end of the play, she is weaker again as she goes mad, and this is part of the resolving of the plot and natural order; therefore women can be stronger than men, but this is a disruption of natural order
Evil
A lot of the evil that is seen in the play is seen to stem from women; the witches and Lady Macbeth are seen to be evil and are women
However, again these women are presented as unnatural, (you should be women / and yet your beards forbid me to interpret / that you are so) and so perhaps Shakespeare shows that evil is not natural in women - normally they are maternal and caring, and these are the exceptions
Feminine qualities
Lady Macbeth believes remorse, compunctious visitings of nature are feminine qualities, and as such views them as weaknesses as she feels they will restrict her from doing what she wants to; murdering Duncan
-