Shakespeare’s seminal tragedy, “Macbeth,” presents the theme of evil through the protagonist’s character. Through the theme of evil, Shakespeare demonstrates how ambition is driven by an individual’s will to do evil. Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s ambitious characters are the leading causes of evil. Moreover, Shakespeare uses the character of Macbeth to explore the effects of power on women. Power is dangerous and destructive when combined with ambition, and women are the leading cause of evil. Shakespeare purports that power at the hands of women is harmful and can be matriarchal. Lady Macbeth feels superior to her husband and questions his ability to be a man. Macbeth has assumed control and easily manipulates his husband, and this can be metaphorically viewed as “Lady Macbeth has poured her spirits into his ears.” However, evil at the end of the play is demeaning and lacks power, while God’s will is given the powerful trait. To portray the character of Lady Macbeth, this essay aims to demonstrate Lady Macbeth as a masculine anti-mother and anti-feminism, a manipulative poisoner, and a traditional witch who references evil spirits.
While some may argue that Lady Macbeth is a powerful woman willing to take power at her hands, others feel that Lady Macbeth is just but a rebellious woman who goes against society’s beliefs about a woman. Throughout the play, the verb “come” is repeated, and this reveals Lady Macbeth’s ambition to have full powers. Lady Macbeth gets to the point of summoning the spirits to take her breasts and milk for gall to make herself masculine. Moreover, Lady Macbeth’s power can be revealed in how she controls her emotions, Something that Macbeth does not have. In the banquet scene, Lady Macbeth has everything under control, unlike Macbeth, making Lady Macbeth mock her husband. Lady Macbeth feels ashamed and disgusted for her husband, and this is a way of being manipulative. However, for the Jacobean audience, Lady Macbeth’s power is reduced to nothing but a rebellious woman who has gone against society. Reducing her breast milk to a gall reveals that she is willing to lose her feminine trait, making her poisonous. Lady Macbeth says, “Come take my milk for gall” (Shakespeare 14). By asserting so, Lady Macbeth wants her milk to be poisonous such that it can kill an infant. Undoubtedly, replacing her breast milk with gall is a way of rebelling the motherly idea and the purpose of breast milk. The society expects women to be caregivers and take summons from their husbands. At first, Shakespeare presents to the audience a lady Macbeth who is full of milk, but Lady Macbeth’s decision to change her milk to a gall shows her ambition to change gender roles. Therefore, with this ambition, Shakespeare reveals how power in the hands of women can cause evil as she tries to change society’s constructed gender roles.
To highlight the absurdness of the misogynistic belief that witches are anti-feminism, Shakespeare portrays Lady Macbeth as an Anti-feminism character. When Shakespeare was writing, it is believed that witches believed in having more masculine traits than feminine ones. The central role of witches is to violate the traditional setting of society and change gender roles. Lady Macbeth says, “Unsex me and fill my crown with direst cruelty” (Shakespeare 14). By asserting so, lady Macbeth wants to be stripped of her femininity and filled with masculine traits. She has no desire to be soft and controlled by men as society dictates to women. By saying that she wishes to be filled with cruelty, Lady Macbeth wants to have the fierce and dominating character of men. Lady Macbeth feels that her feminine traits will interfere with her evil plan. Lady Macbeth feels that she needs to be cruel enough to execute such an evil plan. As society puts it, Lady Macbeth feels that her feminine trait is a great hindrance and not a gift. Moreover, lady Macbeth demonstrates her masculine trait by saying that she would rather kill her child than break an oath. Lady Macbeth says, “I would pluck my nipple while it was smiling and dash its brains out” (Shakespeare 19). By saying so, Shakespeare reveals the anti-feminism traits of witches, revealing Lady Macbeth’s unfavorable perception of children and anti-maternal nature.
Lady Macbeth’s representation as an evil character can be juxtaposed with the Bible’s story about Adam and Eve. Initially, women were the cause of evil, as revealed in the Bible through the story of Adam and Evil. Of the two sexes, male and female, women are seen to be the evilest; Eve gave Adam the fruit, which made the two get kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Shakespeare’s presentation of Lady Macbeth is similar to that of Adam and Eve. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth want to do evil, but Lady Macbeth is more ambitious to do the act. Lady Macbeth’s greed for being a queen made her so ambitious about killing the king. To be the queen, Lady Macbeth pressured Macbeth into helping her so she could kill the king. Lady Macbeth persuades her husband to kill Duncan and challenges him to execute his powers “Screw your courage…and we will not fail” (Shakespeare 19). To gain power and reveal the power the husband has, Lady Macbeth wants her husband to kill the king. Lady Macbeth comes up with a plan to kill Duncan and wishes her husband to execute the plan. Moreover, Lady Macbeth instructs Macbeth to look like a flower but be a serpent in it (Shakespeare 15). This is also a biblical allusion. Shakespeare reveals the idea of the serpent, similar to that in the story of Adam and Eve. Lady Macbeth wants her husband to be as cunning as that serpent, ready to manipulate and mislead the people.
Additionally, Shakespeare reveals the character of Lady Macbeth as a poisoner, displaying the stereotype of witches and their ability to use poison to kill. Though Lady Macbeth does not poison her husband, she poisons her husband’s mind. For this reason, Macbeth becomes a different person as he becomes hungry for power and does not hesitate to do evil to possess power. Lady Macbeth poisons her husband’s mind so that he cannot decide for himself and cannot distinguish evil from good. At first, Macbeth hesitates about the plan and says they are not to continue (Shakespeare 12).
On the other hand, Lady Macbeth does not take no for an answer, and therefore, she psychologically manipulates her husband into executing the earlier plan. Lady Macbeth tells her husband that executing the plan would make him a man and that failure to do it will render him less of a man (Shakespeare 19). By saying so, Lady Macbeth assumes that her husband is a coward and will only be a man if he assassinates Duncan. With this evil influence that Lady Macbeth has exerted on her husband, Macbeth murders Duncan. Obviously, Macbeth would not have committed this evil act without Lady Macbeth. It is Lady Macbeth who poisons Macbeth’s mind and psychologically tortures him into doing evil. Moreover, Lady Macbeth calls on the evil spirits, an act of witches. These evil spirits fill her heart with cruelty, making it easier for her to manipulate Duncan. Lady Macbeth wants the spirits to “make thick her blood” (Shakespeare 14). By asserting so, Lady Macbeth wishes that the evil spirits would fill her so she could entirely focus on the evil act. Shakespeare reveals the stereotypical belief that witches use evil forces to fulfill their evil acts by giving Lady Macbeth the ability to poison and summon the spirits.
In conclusion, Lady Macbeth’s ambition is the cause of evil. Very ambitious to kill the King, Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband into accepting to murder the king. For this reason, it can be revealed that Shakespeare believes women are the leading cause of evil. With the desire to kill the king, Lady Macbeth becomes anti-feminism, one of the stereotypical views about witches. Lady Macbeth no longer desires her feminine traits because she feels they will hinder the king’s killing scheme. Moreover, Lady Macbeth becomes anti-maternal because she is disgusted by what society has on women. Lady Macbeth feels that being reduced to a mother and a caregiver will limit her from being assertive. It is also revealed that Lady Macbeth can summon the evil spirits that make her destructive. Lady Macbeth becomes a poisoner and poisons her husband’s mind. Through the character of Macbeth, Shakespeare challenges the reader to be open-minded to learn the effects of evil on society.
Work Cited
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Clarendon Press, 1889. Retrieved December 14, 2023 from https://books.google.com/books/download/Macbeth.pdf?id=G-40AAAAMAAJ&output=pdf
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