Macbeth Group

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larico
larico
Student
High School - 12th Grade

How are women portrayed within "Macbeth"?

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Posted by larico on Thursday February 26, 2009 at 9:37 AM and tagged with macbeth, themes, women.

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  1. gbeatty Teacher
    College - Freshman

    eNotes Editor

    Women are portrayed in "Macbeth" in two primary ways. First, they are portrayed as being highly influential, but not as being the primary actors. The play is called "Macbeth," after all, not "Lady Macbeth." In this it reflects the time.

     

    A more complex way women are portrayed is as distinct from the ways of men, and in untrustworthy, even "weird" ways. "Weird" is used here specifically: women are involved with fates, magic, and strangeness. They have powers that are not natural and that reach across time and space. This can be seen in the witches, but also in Lady Macbeth's planning her husband's future.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/macbeth/character-analysis

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    Posted by gbeatty on Thursday February 26, 2009 at 11:36 AM


  2. kc4u Teacher
    College - Senior

    eNotes Editor

    'Macbeth' is essentially a tragedy of ambition that presents a male world of war, murder, conspiracy and violence. Women and all that is traditionally believed to be feminine seem heavily marginalised in the Macbeth world of moral topsy-turvy. Lady Macbeth and Lady Macduff are the two women portrayed as foils to each other: Lady Macbeth sacrificing her female self to stand by her ambitious husband's side and Lady Macduff sacrificing her life in the hands of killers commissioned by Macbeth and still holding on to her identity of an innocent wife & a caring mother. Macbeth's 'vaulting ambition' flared up by the Witches' prophecy leads to Lady Macbeth's unwomanly cruelty and her assumption of the powers of evil. She chooses to step into the shady world of villainy, secrecy, conspiracy & lust for power. She suffers from psychological crises leading to somnambulism and suicidal death. She is, indeed, a victim of circumstances.Lady Macduff appears in only one scene and she dies an unnatural death.

    We have three witches and their queen Hecate. The queen and her uncanny followers remain objects of supernatural awe and fear. The Witches appear as old, wizened women wearing male costumes, and even growing beards; they stoke up the seed of evil ambition in Macbeth, just as Lady Macbeth keeps the ambition growing in her husband's mind. The witches possess an ambiguous sexuality, and their dubious nature is always suspect. They equivocate to Macbeth's doing and undoing.

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    Posted by kc4u on Thursday February 26, 2009 at 11:43 AM

  3. pmiranda2857
    pmiranda2857 Teacher
    High School - 10th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    The women in Macbeth have substantial power over the main character.  The three witches and the head of the witches Hecate give Macbeth just enough information so that his natural instincts toward ambition and greed are stirred up.  He literally destroys himself with the help of the witches.

    Lady Macbeth is a strong influence over her husband.  She convinces him to go through with killing King Duncan.  Macbeth had a crisis of conscience before he told his wife he had decided to forget about killing the king.  She succeeds in begging, pleading and insulting her husband into accepting the fact that he must kill the king.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/macbeth/lady-macbeth-character-anal...
    http://www.enotes.com/macbeth/other-characters-descriptions
    http://www.enotes.com/macbeth/three-witches-weird-sisters...

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    Posted by pmiranda2857 on Thursday February 26, 2009 at 1:15 PM