Lady Macbeth Research Paper

Macbeth Throughout History The play Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare is a tragedy showing that power, greed, and ambition leads to corruption within themselves. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are very strong characters, they start out with strong leadership abilities and a good character, like many iconic historic figures, as in Richard III, Hitler, Richard Nixon, Catherine The Great, Anne Boleyn, and Cleopatra.
Let’s start out with Macbeth. Macbeth is brave and ambitious,but he has a lot of self doubt which leads to Lady Macbeth making decisions for him. Even though Macbeth has a lot of self doubt he also has a lot of ambition which leads to his death.
Richard III has a lot of the same character traits as Macbeth. Richard III killed his brother and young nephew in order to get to the throne, he was also very narcissistic and possessed a need for control (Clay 1). Macbeth also has a few attributions
There are quite a few historical woman that are a lot like lady Macbeth, one that stands out to me is Cleopatra, a pharaoh and sole ruler of Egypt. She was married to Marcus Antonius, a Roman politician. Cleopatra had a great deal of control over Antonius’ life, he may have been her husband but Cleopatra ruled over Egypt and did not care who she has to step on to get there, just like Lady Macbeth (Villanova 4). Catherine The Great is also a strong historic figure similar to Lady Macbeth, she was the Queen of Russia from 1762 until her death in 1796. Catherine was ruthless, she approved the assassination of her husband in order to get to the throne, and aspired to have total power. Like Lady Macbeth she would not be anywhere if it wasn’t for her husband (Paljive 5). Another comparable woman is Anne Boleyn, she isn’t as ruthless and cruel as Lady Macbeth, but she did rise to the top by mooching off her husband, which is very similar to Lady Macbeth (Prezi