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Representation of women in Shakespeare
Characterization of women in Shakespeare
Representation of women in Shakespeare
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In the words of Charles Henry Parkhurst, “Sympathy is two hearts tugging at one load.” This idea can be connected to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, as the audience may feel sympathetic towards the character Macbeth. As readers begin to see a part of Macbeth that they can relate to, they also start to sympathize with him and what he is feeling. Two specific ways in which the audience may feel sympathetic towards Macbeth are the fact that Macbeth feels remorse for his crimes, and because of his manipulative wife. These are both key factors that allow the audience to relate to Macbeth’s downfall that eventually leads to his death. One of the major reasons that Macbeth receives some sympathy in light of his crimes is because he feels remorse both before
In the Shakespearian tragedy Macbeth, though Macbeth manages to murder the Scottish king Duncan to actualize the prophecy of the three witches, yet the guilt emanating from such nefarious acts and intentions continues to foreshadow Macbeth’s life throughout the plot. The very moment Macbeth approaches lady Macbeth with hands dipped in the blood of Duncan, his deeps seated guilt oozes forth as he says, “Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more;/Macbeth does murder sleep (2.2.45-46)”. Thereby, from this moment onwards, Macbeth is shown to be strongly stung by an unrelenting and continually nagging sense of guilt that makes him engage in strange and suspicion generating acts and manners. Yet, Macbeth time and again interprets his guilt as a sign of cowardice and moves on to spill more blood to consolidate his hold over an ill gotten throne. The torment and anguish inherent in these lines that are imbued with the seeds of guilt eventually metamorphose into a full blown sense of guilt and shame that continues to torment his soul.
Have you ever felt so terrible for something you did, or even felt awful before you even do that dangerous act? A part of the human nature is the very complex brain which gives humans the thought that they have done something wrong or are about to do something wrong. This is called your conscience and if you do not listen to it, very bad things can occur as a direct consequence. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth comes across as a hero and then turned into an absolute monster due to the inhumane acts that he takes to become the most powerful leader and hold that position. Art Markman from phychology.com defines the use of guilt. He says, “Guilt is a valuable emotion, because it helps to maintain your ties to the people in your community.”(Psychology.com)
In the play of “Macbeth”, Shakespeare gradually and effectively deepens our understanding of the themes and most importantly the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The main theme of Macbeth is ambition, and how it compels the main characters to pursue it. The antagonists of the play are the three witches, who symbolise the theme appearance and reality. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relation is an irony throughout the play, as most of their relation is based on greed and power. This is different from most of Shakespeare’s other plays, which are mostly based on romance and trust. There is also guilt that leads Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to the final consequences of the play. As the progresses, the constant changes in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are exposed.
Macbeth feels a great deal of remorse after he has killed the king. He understands that he has committed a sin and will be punished. He is so terrified that he hears voices telling him:“ Macbeth does murder sleep, … , Macbeth shall sleep no more”(Act 2, Sc.2 p. 57). Macbeth is very upset with himself and wishes that he never killed Duncan. “To know my deed it were best not know myself.” When he hears strange knocking at the gate he wishes that it wakes up Duncan, “wake Duncan with thy knocking”, however it is too late (Act 2, Sc.3 p. 61).
As the play goes on Macbeth turns for the worse. He becomes more ruthless, evil, and murderous. After killing Duncan, Macbeth feels remorse and guilt. "To know my deed, ‘twere best not know myself. Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou could’st." Not being able to return to Duncans room and place the knives is a show of weakness and remorse.
“O worthiest cousin, the sin of my gratitude even now was heavy on me!”(I. i. 347) the king cannot repay him for what he has done for their kingdom. Macbeth is a highly respected warrior because he is loyal, trusted, and honest man. Macbeth is a vulnerable man; he is weak. Letting other people make decisions for him, he becomes more incapable of resisting how people will view him as a “loyal” soldier since he cannot follow through. In the film Macbeth the setting is right in the middle of war. Macbeth has held the enemy facing him, but he hesitates and looks at his soldiers for the okay to kill the enemy. With that being said, he is seriously self conscious and lets others makes the decisions for him. Before he is going to kill King Duncan, he speaks to himself in the If soliloquy. “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well It were done quickly.”(I. vii. 343) in this quote it shows that he is truly evil since he wants it done quick and easy.
Everyone deals with guilt at least one time throughout their life, and several authors use guilt to help build up suspense in their story. Guilt in Macbeth not only affects his mental state of mind, but it also destroys him physically, along with a few other characters such as Lady Macbeth. The characters are affected by guilt so much, that it actually leads to their death essentially, just because they were not able to handle the consequences for the events that occurred. Despite being destroyed by guilt, they were still forced to carry on with their lives and they did have to try to hide it, even though Macbeth was not doing so well with that. His hallucinations were giving him up and eventually everyone knew the he had murdered Duncan so he could become the next king.
Perhaps the most fundamental theme of Shakespeare’s Macbeth is the inherent corruptibility of even a seemingly good man when ambition turns to greed, and Macbeth himself, as one would expect, exemplifies this concept throughout the play. While at the outset he is seen to be loyal to his king, generally considered trustworthy, and displaying numerous other laudable qualities, Macbeth ultimately succumbs to the influence of those around him and becomes unequivocally evil, setting aside all his previously held morals and coming to be driven only by his lust for power. This transition is brought about by a wide variety of factors and plays an integral role in the development of the plot. In his tragedy Macbeth, William Shakespeare employs multiple methods of characterization in order to highlight the protagonist’s transformation from hero to villain as a result of the influences of the people surrounding him, namely the Weïrd sisters, Lady Macbeth, and Macduff, including extensive foreshadowing, a general shift in tone corresponding with turning points in the plot, and the inclusion of long-winded soliloquies to mark a critical change in Macbeth’s character.
Shakespeare uses the title character of Macbeth to effectively develop the theme of guilt and conscience in his play. Several times in the play we see Macbeth’s character crumbling as a result of a guilty conscience. At the beginning of the play he meets the witches with Banquo, and this prompts the first step toward killing the King. This helps in developing the theme because we get the idea that Macbeth does not trust the witches, nor does he fully believe them. Unfortunately his ambitious nature gets the better of him and causes him to listen carefully to how he might acquire his kingship. Macbeth feels guilty that he is thinking about killing the King because he’s basing his entire thought upon belief in the ‘evil creatures’. We see this when Macbeth has a soliloquy in which he says, “Cannot be ill, cannot be good” and also asks himself why the thought of becoming King makes his “seated heart” knock against his ribs.
Lady Macbeth starts off in the play as a heartless creature, not completely aware of her deeds and actions. She gets carried away and commits an awful crime, one that comes back with revenge. They are errors, ones she ends up deeply regretting. As the story progresses, we soon learn that she is not capable of controlling her emotions. Lady Macbeth is a lady whose excess of ambition leads her to something she wasn’t strong enough to deal with: remorse.
And immediately we are brought to tragedy and what the concept of a hero is. In Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, the character of Macbeth murders his king, Duncan, for personal motives, there appears to be little subjective reasoning for the murder. This perhaps encapsulates the notion of an incident which has the potential to arise pity from an audience. The reader begins to pity Macbeth despite the obvious character flaws of greed and corruption. Shakespeare manipulates the audience to react sympathetically towards Macbeth through the use of Macbeth's actions, dialogue, and passion.
No person can go through life without facing the consequences of their actions. In fact, it is generally believed that every action must have a reaction. This belief is exhibited in Shakespeare's Macbeth. In the play, Lady Macbeth was the push that led her husband, Macbeth, to kill their king. This murder causes a series of consequences for both characters, which ultimately lead to their downfall. These character’s actions led to negative repercussions, but the audience will have a hard time pitying them, as their tragedy appears to be self inflicted. This idea of a self wrought tragedy is apparent in Lady Macbeth, as she is initially seen as a brutal woman because she convinced Macbeth to kill king Duncan, and aided in the murder. However, her guilt eventually lead to her own demise.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, he chronicled the story of Macbeth’s rise to power and all he encountered during that journey. One theme that is present throughout the entirety of the play is guilt. As the story progressed, it can be seen that guilt affects each character differently depending on their role in the play. However, every person deals with the guilt in their own way. Everyone is influenced by a feeling of regret at some point in their lives, and the way they deal with it will affect them in the long run. It can be seen taking a drastic toll, particularly on the characters of Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth. Ultimately, the presence of guilt in someone is determined by how easily they let it affect them.
Guilt played a tragic role in Macbeth?s downfall. After killing Duncan, he was haunted by his actions and couldn?t move on without worrying that his murder was going to be exploited. From the quote, ?Will all great Neptune?s ocean wash this blood? (2.2.60),? we can assume that Macbeth was worried of whether or not his guilt will vanquish. There was no turning back for him. As the story progresses, the only solution for maintaining his reign of Scotland was to kill. His close friend, Banquo, was also murdered because Macbeth assumed doing so would be best in order to prevent losing his throne. But little did Macbeth know that he was actually being killed by his own mind and ambitions
By embracing evil, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have committed unnatural actions that disturb them. Their guilt does not leave them in peace, and slowly degrades their health. Macbeth's guilt causes him to act strangely in front of his guests, and it disturbs him deeply. Macbeth's guilt is deeply mutilated, and it only affects him when he hallucinates "Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves / Shall never tremble" (III.iv.124-125), and as soon as his visions disappear he feels better "Why so, being gone, / I am a man again.- Pray you sit still" (iii.iV.130-131), not something normal considering the actions he has committed. His guilt paralyzes him when he does feel it, but most of the time he is guiltless, and that encourages him to commit more murder. Although his guilt does not ultimately destroy him, it is a factor that brings his own men against him, since through his guilt he reveals the actions he has committed.