The Punishment of Female Rebellion in 'the Bacchae' and 'Macbeth'

The Punishment of Female Rebellion in 'The Bacchae' and 'Macbeth' To be a woman is to be submissive. Such is the case in regards to gender roles in both Euripides's The Bacchae and in William Shakespeare's Macbeth. In both tragedies, women are expected to be weak and delicate, keeping to all but house chores and childrearing. Also in both tragedies are female characters who break the confines of their gender roles, giving opportunity for the play to present terrifying implications and consequences of this rebellion from femininity. Agave, from The Bacchae, and Lady Macbeth, from Macbeth, are examples of these women who disrupt the established role of women in their respective plays to only end up creating chaos, which in turn, could only be solved with the weakening and removal of these unconventional women. The two both exhibit themes of female rebellion and the play responds to the theme in almost identical ways. In both plays, the theme of female rebellion is presented with women who are ultimately punished for straying from conventionally established idea of being a woman, leading one to realize the plays' favor for traditional gender roles. This favoring of the established traditional gender roles is evident in the plays' transitions in imagery used to define the characters, the character's deteriorating relationships, and their eventual downfall due to madness with Agave and Lady Macbeth being the examples of the punishing of female rebellion. Progressive imagery in the plays indicate a correlation with women who break traditional roles and ultimate succumbing to madness, as both Agave and Lady Macbeth both become associated with progressively more objectionable imagery. In the case of Agave in The Bacchae, she was initially presented regally as a "queen" of a kingdom. However, after she left to frolic and become one of the Bacchae, exiting her traditional role as a housewife, she is depicted in a much different manner. What is regal eventually becomes