Women's Role In Macbeth Essay

In the story Macbeth, there were very few female roles. However, the women that were in it, had very influential roles. The women, Lady Macbeth and the Weird Sisters, use the people, specifically men, around them to either get what they want or to control the outcome of situations. The trio of witches that starred in Macbeth held immense amounts of power. They convinced Macbeth that he would first be not only Thane of Glamis, but also Thane of Cawdor. After that he would become the king. Macbeth, not knowing that it had already been decreed that he would be Thane of Cawdor, assumed that the witches could predict the future. Macbeth then assumed that in order for the final prediction to come true, something terrible had to happen to
In Lady Macbeth’s case, she became willing to take other’s lives in her own hands. She took on decidedly male characteristics such as plotting how and when to kill people. First, Duncan the king. Then Banquo and his son. She wanted every person that could possibly take her title away, to disappear. She also bossed her husband around when he became doubtful and scared of carrying out their plans for power. Lady Macbeth became more and more delirious as time went on after she had helped murder Duncan. She began having nightmares, sleepwalking, and sleeptalking about the murders. She is unable to control the effect that her guilt has on her. This spiral out of control shows how the writer of the story thinks feminism ends: when a woman is given too much power, she eventually loses her mind because of the stress. Feminism in Macbeth is portrayed as having only to endings, extreme power or insanity. The Weird Sisters essentially used mind control to thwart the natural advancement of events and Lady Macbeth plans the death of many people to attain a position that is filled with power. She is, in the end, reduced to an insignificant person who is haunted and plagued by nightmares and