![]() Since these are typically male qualities, this is where she strays away from traditional gender roles. ![]() Instead of being loving and nurturing as she is expected to be, she wants to be cold and remorseless. Lady Macbeth is determined to help her husband obtain the crown, but sees her gender as an obstacle and hence wants to be “unsexed”. That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,Īnd fill me from the crown to the toe top-full We can see this inner conflict in her soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 5, where she says: Her goal is not for herself to become queen, but rather for her husband to become king. Therefore, any ambition Lady Macbeth has is essentially for her husband, and must be realized through her husband. ![]() According to psychoanalyst Georg Simmel, it is virtually impossible for women to build an autonomous identity in a male-dominated world (Vromen 564). Being defined by her husband and not “in her own right” creates certain problems in the development of Lady Macbeth’s identity. In this way, the play effectively demonstrates the roles that both Macbeths are expected to conform to, but it also sheds light on the problematic nature of these obligations specifically for women by having the roles switched for the couple. She is judged not on her own merits, but on her husband’s. In addition, Lady Macbeth is essentially nameless, and therefore “is not initially defined in her own right but regarded as an extension of her husband” (Liston 234). As the wife, Lady Macbeth is expected to cater to her husband and his companions. For instance, when Duncan arrives in Inverness, he repeatedly refers to Lady Macbeth as “our honored hostess” (1.6.13) or “fair and noble hostess” (1.6.30). Similarly, Lady Macbeth as the wife has certain responsibilities that she has to fulfill. Thus, Lady Macbeth claims, “when you durst do it, then you were a man” (1.7.56), equating manliness with courage and violence. Firstly, Lady Macbeth sees it as her husband’s manly duty to elevate their status and improve their lives by killing Duncan, but Macbeth has some doubts. The play establishes this binary in Act 1. Such roles entail the assumption that men are brave, commanding and determined, while women are warm, nurturing, and subservient. I will also contend that following this analysis and contrary to typical characterizations, Lady Macbeth is not evil, but rather a product of the patriarchal forces that drive her to the murder of Duncan and eventually result in her psychological collapse.įeminist theory looks at the power relations within a text, so in order to understand Lady Macbeth’s character and her eventual demise, we must first examine the dynamic between her and her husband, and the extent to which they adhere to traditional gender roles within their relationship. Thus, using these two approaches combined, I will provide a character analysis of Lady Macbeth and specifically argue that the reason she goes insane towards the end of the play is not childlessness, but rather the failure of her marriage. It is virtually impossible to separate feminist theory from psychoanalytic criticism, as a significant portion of the former is a response to the latter. To understand this peculiar change in her character, this essay will examine her through psychoanalysis and Anglo-American feminist criticism. Many psychoanalysts including Freud attribute it to her not having a child, but he deems her change in behavior too quick for this to be true (322). Freud himself has tried to give a reason for the sudden shift in Lady Macbeth’s demeanor, but has failed to come up with a definitive answer (320). Therefore, the question this essay will answer is why this is the case. ![]() The murder of King Duncan serves as a turning point for the play: prior to this event, gender roles appear to be reversed for Lady Macbeth and her husband, as she is the more dominant figure within the relationship, whereas afterwards, it is she who succumbs to guilt and eventually commits suicide despite her initial determination and pertinacity. A Psychoanalytic and Feminist Look into One of Literature’s Most (In)famous Womenįocusing on the character of Lady Macbeth provides an in-depth analysis of how Shakespeare uses the limitations of traditional gender roles to create conflict within Macbeth (1606).
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