How male/female relationships are portrayed in Macbeth and poems
Male/female relationships are portrayed differently in the poems ‘Porphyria’s Lover’, ‘Havisham’, ‘Cousin Kate’ and the play ‘Macbeth’. They all surround the themes of love, hate, jealousy, betrayal, guilt and obsession. However, the love versus hate theme is most dominant because all of the poems and the play have a melancholy mood, showing how the key characters have been hurt by love through their relationships and how afterwards, the way they feel has also been affected.
Shakespeare’s characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are initially united by their mutual ambition for power and their relationship is strong. However, over time, they become haunted by the brutal deeds that they have carried out to achieve their aims. They are driven apart by their inner feelings, secrets and guilt.
In Act 1 Scene 7 of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is portrayed as a woman in control over her man, a very odd situation in Jacobean times where the man would most often be in control of the woman. She is shown as being in control by persuading Macbeth into murdering Duncan, the king. She says, “Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own esteem,” to Macbeth, telling him he could have all his desires and the crown, but he is a coward and won’t achieve it. This makes the audience see her as a much less sensitive and respectful woman, compared to the typical Jacobean lady, being restricted and controlled by male dominance in society. At the time the play was written, women had no power or control over anything, and all decisions were made by men. However, Lady Macbeth is the opposite of this, and challenges Macbeth to murder Duncan.
While Lady Macbeth is shown as having more power at this point in the play, they aren’t hiding their thoughts or secrets from each other. The audience are shown this by the couple plotting the murder together as a united team and by them discussing “what cannot you and I perform upon the unguarded Duncan”. The effect of this on the
Shakespeare’s characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are initially united by their mutual ambition for power and their relationship is strong. However, over time, they become haunted by the brutal deeds that they have carried out to achieve their aims. They are driven apart by their inner feelings, secrets and guilt.
In Act 1 Scene 7 of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is portrayed as a woman in control over her man, a very odd situation in Jacobean times where the man would most often be in control of the woman. She is shown as being in control by persuading Macbeth into murdering Duncan, the king. She says, “Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own esteem,” to Macbeth, telling him he could have all his desires and the crown, but he is a coward and won’t achieve it. This makes the audience see her as a much less sensitive and respectful woman, compared to the typical Jacobean lady, being restricted and controlled by male dominance in society. At the time the play was written, women had no power or control over anything, and all decisions were made by men. However, Lady Macbeth is the opposite of this, and challenges Macbeth to murder Duncan.
While Lady Macbeth is shown as having more power at this point in the play, they aren’t hiding their thoughts or secrets from each other. The audience are shown this by the couple plotting the murder together as a united team and by them discussing “what cannot you and I perform upon the unguarded Duncan”. The effect of this on the