hello everybody and welcome to this analysis of lady macbeth like her husband there are multiple ways of interpreting the character of lady macbeth in today's video i'll explore two different ideas lady macbeth is subverting feminine stereotypes of the jacobean era but also in a contradictory way conforming to them now there's no definitive answer to this so why not weigh up both sides and then put a comment in the comments section letting everyone know your thoughts on the topic first a bit of historical context about the role of women in shakespeare's time women belonged to their fathers and then their husbands when they married they could not attend school or university they could not purchase property they could not vote they were not allowed on stage in plays the female roles were acted by young men and now specifically on the role of wives wives were expected to be obedient and subservient to their husbands serving as hostess and help mate as one critic will be looking at later puts it but we don't need a history lesson to explore attitudes to women in macbeth the play itself contains numerous moments which tell us something on this topic in acts 2 scene 3 macduff doesn't want to inform lady macbeth about the murder of king duncan telling her that the repetition in a woman's ear would murder as it fell meaning that to tell this news to a woman would kill her and this presents women as weak in particular weaker than men in act 4 scene 3 macduff states i could play the woman with mine eyes meaning he could weep like a woman in the same scene ross says that mcduff's return to scotland would be so inspiring it would make our women fight now up against this set of feminine stereotypes is it possible to see lady macbeth as the complete opposite if we are to view lady macbeth as powerful as the fiend-like queen malcolm refers to her as in the play's final scene it hangs on the interpretation that she manipulated and otherwise reluctant macbeth into murder as elizabeth klett puts it in women in literature reading through the lens of gender as a woman of ambition living in a patriarchal world that allows no outlet for her intelligence she becomes motivated to seize power through her husband if looking to evidence this point we would have to go no further than act 1 scene 5 the first time the audience meets lady macbeth and undoubtedly one of the most well-known passages in all of shakespeare now this scene has been taught a million times so i won't spend long on it but let's take a look at the supernatural imagery highlighted on screen shakespeare's use of supernatural imagery with lady macbeth calling on evil spirits to fill her might not be that shocking to us today but it was different in shakespeare's world practicing witchcraft was a crime punishable by death in shakespeare's time and during the jacobean era king james is estimated to have been responsible for the burning of 4 000 alleged witches in scotland alone so when lady macbeth calls on evil spirits to fill her the audience would be shocked at her actions she certainly doesn't seem weak or passive here when macbeth enters she tells him he must kill the king that very night oh never shall sun that morrow sea by act 1 scene 7 macbeth has just about talked himself out of the idea of killing king duncan at this point in his speech however lady macbeth enters here's the stage direction this is an interesting structural technique from shakespeare as it gives the audience a visual cue as lady macbeth walks in macbeth has no spare no cause to murder his king except his ambition and now he enters lady macbeth macbeth decides we will proceed no further in this business and lady macbeth destroys his resolve and all his convincing arguments in less than 50 lines of dialogue remember this is macbeth the warrior the fearless leader in battle and he appears to be verbally manipulated and coerced by his wife she tackles him using a number of different techniques firstly she says he's inconsistent and changes his mind often was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself have it slept since secondly she uses his love for her against him saying that he obviously doesn't love her if he won't do this from this time such i account by love thirdly lady macbeth says her husband is no better than someone who's drunk all the time deciding things when intoxicated then changing their mind when hung over the next day and wakes it now to look so green and pale finally and most importantly she challenges his manhood when you durst do it then you were a man this is the most effective attack on her husband because as we looked at in my character analysis of macbeth his entire reputation is founded upon his bravery and courage and lady macbeth is basically calling him the shakespearean equivalent of chicken she calls him coward poor cat and says then you were a man until he gives him so here lady macbeth comes across as powerful and dominant seemingly persuading her reluctant husband to kill the king another powerful moment for lady macbeth is seen in the banquet scene in act 3 scene 4. as macbeth falls apart in front of his guests its lady macbeth who takes control she both challenges her husband asking him are you a man and directs the banquet guests telling them first to sit then to speak not and finally to go at once lady macbeth is very much in charge in this scene and her power is all the more noticeable when juxtaposed with the weakness of her husband many people argue that shakespeare was proto-feminist seeing as feminism as it exists today did not exist in shakespeare's time we use proto at the beginning in order to make that distinction scholars often look at shakespeare's female characters and point to their eloquence and strength of character concluding that shakespeare must have been sending some sort of message about women and what he thought of them considering the restrictions that many women faced in shakespeare's time it's certainly a persuasive argument and one that seems true of lady macbeth at this point but another way of looking at lady macbeth is to consider her not as powerful at all could it be true that far from being a proto-feminist shakespeare is actually depicting lady macbeth as conforming to feminine stereotypes of the era what's so clever is that we can begin this line of analysis looking again at act 1 scene 5. if lady macbeth is so powerful why does she need the support of the forces of darkness in order to carry out her plan if shakespeare is presenting women as powerful why does lady macbeth need to reject her femininity in order to do what she plans to do rather than seeing lady macbeth as powerful in this scene we might analyze her as a subservient wife to her husband fulfilling what joan larson klein describes in the woman's part feminist criticism of shakespeare as her wifely roles of hostess and help mate to begin this analysis let's go back a little bit further in act 1 scene 5 to the moment when lady macbeth reads the letter from her husband in the letter to his wife macbeth hints at his plan to kill duncan when he writes i have learned by the perfectest report they have more in them than mortal knowledge when i burned in desire to question them further they made themselves heir into which they vanished in other words macbeth is saying that the witches seem to be speaking the truth about his future as king a truth which made him burn with desire to learn more as an audience we know that macbeth is already thinking of murdering his way to the throne in act 1 scene 4 macbeth talks in an aside about the realization that the only way to become king now malcolm has been named as duncan's successor is to give in to his black and deep desires and o'er leap malcolm this quotation suggests that macbeth already had murder on his mind to dr emil fundheller writing in 1873 lady macbeth perceives her husband's murderous plan knows he will be too weak to follow it through and decides that she must do everything she can to help him achieve his goal because this is her role as wife to be a help mate to her husband to fund heller this explains why lady macbeth needs to call on evil spirits and reject her femininity to move forward feeling that a womanly nature is not at all able to accomplish a crime from which macbeth recoils and notwithstanding resolve to fulfill the deep desire of her husband she gives up her womanhood and does violence to her own nature for this purpose she calls upon the hellish spirits if lady macbeth had been naturally cruel she needed not so solemnly to have observed all pity and called on the spirits that wait on mortal thoughts to unsex her the desire of making her husband a king makes her push head long into that abyss of crime and guilt so could it be that rather than powerful and strong lady macbeth is simply trying to assist her husband in achieving his goals as was expected of wives at the time to joan larsen klein there are lots of moments when lady macbeth acts as help mate to her husband it is lady macbeth's idea to get duncan's grooms drunk with wine and wasale in act 1 scene 7.
it is lady macbeth who unlocks duncan's door ready for the murder telling us that the doors are open in act 2 scene 2. it is lady macbeth who gets the daggers ready it's lady macbeth who tells macbeth to wash this filthy witness from your hand it's lady macbeth who takes the daggers back to plant them on the guards it's lady macbeth who tells macbeth to get on your nightgown clearly lady macbeth's role in the murder of king duncan is significant but does she instigate it persuading and manipulating her reluctant husband to commit regicide or does she simply assist him in his plans as the good helpmate wife of the era whatever you believe there is no doubt that lady macbeth's power and influence diminishes after duncan is killed joan larson klein writes as soon as duncan's murder is a public fact lady macbeth begins to lose her place in society and her position at home she does so because there is no room for her in the exclusively male world of treason and revenge after macbeth becomes king he the man so fully commands lady macbeth that he allows her no share in his new business no longer his accomplice she loses her role as housekeeper macbeth plans the next feast not lady macbeth it is macbeth who invites banquo to it not lady macbeth who had welcomed duncan to inverness by herself and we know this if we look at act 1 scene 6 when macbeth is already at the castle it's nevertheless lady macbeth who greets the king when he arrives macbeth isn't even in the scene as we know from the macbeth revision song macbeth does not tell his wife about his plans for banquo dismissing her with the condescending be innocent of the knowledge dearest chuck in act 3 scene 2.
