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lady macbeth - my fave girlboss <33 - Coggle Diagram
lady macbeth - my fave girlboss <33
women
instantaneous breakage of stereotypes, due to the audience seeing her with no children or maternal qualities
her gender, similarly to the witches, remains ambiguous, she appears feminine, however, pleaded for her womanly gifts to be taken
shakespeare presents her as a highly powerful woman consistently throughout the play, yet interestingly, perhaps to reform to social norms, breaks her power away completely in the sleepwalking scene, as she has to show signs of fragility and dismissiveness to fit with woman steryotypes
lady macbeth appears a typical jacobean women from the outside of her marriage, due to the façade she often puts up (fainting, act 2:3) - however the audience sees her unusual dominance and manipulation from inside the marriage
shakespeare may suggest the dangers of gender nonconformity in lady macbeth ,due to her erratic and villainous personality
supernatural
potential to be 4th witch
implants the idea of murder in macbeth, just as the witches do
speaks in rhyme when trying to persuade Macbeth, her level of malicious manipulation reminisces with the fact that she can't be human
subversion of femininity, links with the witches ambiguous appearances 'you should be women, yet your beards forbid me to think so'
supernatural references in her soliloquy (act 1:5)
character development
strong morals at start of play, clever with words and highly manipulative, she's presented as strong and is a useful tool in allowing macbeth kill duncan
banquet scene - loss of trust with macbeth, confusion and slight slip on her grip on power, disparity to try and grab it back
act 4 disappearance - highlights the time period of her mental deterioration and allows to macbeth to become less reliant on her, causing her to lose grip on her handle of power
sleepwalking scene - allows audience to see the weaknesses of lady macbeth, rounds her character and makes her seem more 'human
context
links to supernatural
jacobean fascination/transfixion in the supernatural/witches
frequent burning of suspected witches at the time
link to women
women had no rights in society in the jacobean era, women were expected to get married, become 'properties' of their husbands and have children
use in play
influence on macbeth
highly manipulative
has a crave for power, which rubs off on macbeth
used as a 'tragic heroine'
starts play with great sphere of power, yet falls due to the flaws in her own judgement
ultimately weakened by guilt and paranoia
her mental deterioration highlights the phycological effects of guilt and the damage it can cause
relationship with macbeth
arguably uses macbeth as a ticket the climb the social ladder as, being a woman, she can't do it herself.
macbeth is the only way she can get her hands on power, due to her manipulative tendencies, she's able to sculpt macbeth to do what she desires, fuelling her as a result, with the power she so desperately craves
appearance and reality
"look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't"
'serpent' - religious reference, the serpent is what led adam and eve to the fall of mankind, used as a hidden foreshadow
links and parallels between lady macbeth and eve - eve is globally known as the cause of sin, just as lady macbeth is the root for macbeth's downfall
light and dark
"nor heaven peep through the blanket of dark"
her plans and ambitions rest on the fact that she uses a façade to manipulate reality
struggles to differentiate between what's real and what's not, in sleepwalking scene, as she's so overcome with guilt, her flippant comments about appearance and reality come back to bite her