Feminism In Macbeth

Female characters in classical literature are usually written as objects in a misogynistic viewpoint and made out to be nonhuman in a sense. Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. Set mainly in Scotland, the play dramatizes the damaging psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. Feminism is a movement that seeks equality for all people, and an elimination of classical ideas of gender (male intelligence versus female inferiority; male strength versus female emotional weakness) as gender is a social construct rather than something that a person is born into. Though Macbeth’s main players are male, the women of Macbeth are the backbones of the play’s plot and the character
Lady Macbeth appears to be very influential in planning, deciding when and how they should kill King Duncan, and degrading her husband for not acting more like a man. Originally shown as a morally-grey character who states she, ‘…would, while it [her child] was smiling in my face/Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums/ And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you/Have done to this.” to later being shown as haunted by her act and shown as a contrary to her husband who has evolved destructively to not be remorseful, especially after the killings of the Macduff family (4.2) while she degenerates to feel the remorse of her actions via paralyzing nightmares (5.1) , However, the death of Lady Macbeth shows a deep disbelief in her husband’s intentions with Scotland and his decisions, giving her character redemption for the things she has done. Despite her earlier show of power, Lady Macbeth’s eventual fall is a result of a patriarchal portrayal of her gender. Socially acceptable femininity is shown in qualities of love, sense of self, and family; none of these exhibited in Lady Macbeth .Lady Macbeth’s identity is based on her conceptions of manliness, this is shown in the first act of the play, when we are first shown to Lady Macbeth’s intentions after she reads the letter “…fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/ Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood./ Stop up the access and passage to remorse,(…) Come to my woman’s breasts,/And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers” this is important to Lady Macbeth’s femininity because the use of diction in the phrase ‘milk for gall’ represents womanhood, shown by breasts and milk, usually symbols of nurture, contrasts to her dark nature that will lead her from performing acts of violence and cruelty, which she associates with manliness. Though Lady Macbeth does use her femininity to her advantage in the play, the scene after her