Lady Macbeth And Lady Macbeth: Power In Disguise

Lady Macbeth: Power in Disguise
Several times, whether in history or literature, there have been substantial demonstrations of the achievement of power, but very few from women. The yearning for power has also been displayed in a negative light due to its constant association with corruption. But is it really the power that leads to corruption or is there another factor? As John Steinbeck has said, “Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts. Perhaps the fear of a loss of power.” In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, there are demonstrations of ambition driving the protagonists to acquire power which they in return, fear to lose. This fear, inevitably leads to each character’s destruction. However, all of which has been said, it is left to the interpretation of the reader or audience to really understand what Shakespeare meant. It is obvious that Shakespeare sees the destruction ambition and power can cause, but very often we assume that this occurs through Macbeth, when in reality it is Lady Macbeth. Most of the audience focuses solely on Macbeth after the first act, but fail to realize that the play would be nothing without Lady Macbeth’s obsession with power. The evil residing in Lady Macbeth knows that in her beloved husband is “too full of the milk of human kindness.”
The play opens with three witches cackling about Macbeth, the great Scottish general who is on his victorious return from a war between Scotland and Norway. The Scottish King, Duncan, decides that he will confer the title of the traitorous Cawdor on the heroic Macbeth. Macbeth, and another General known as Banquo, happen upon the three witches. The witches predict that Macbeth will one day become king, be given the title of Thane of Cawdor, and that Banquo’s children will be kin...

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... and generous principle and every feminine feeling. In the pursuit of her object, she is cruel, treacherous and daring” (Jameson 362). Jameson’s interpretation and explanation of Lady Macbeth is similar to my ideology of Lady Macbeth. Our views of how she placed the role of a kind, genuine wife on her husband initially as a means of achieving the power desired. However, it is never addressed how wicked her crime of instigating the murder of Duncan. It is simply forgotten, or even forgiven through the course of the play. This leads me to believe that this is why people fail to recognize her true power. Lady Macbeth is the king in her marriage and Macbeth is simply a pawn under her control. It appears to me, that Shakespeare used Macbeth to display the destruction caused by ambition and power, while simultaneously using Lady Macbeth to portray true power at its peak.