The Winter's Tale (Vol. 57) - Mary Ellen Lamb (essay date 1998)
Mary Ellen Lamb (essay date 1998)
SOURCE: “Engendering the Narrative Act: Old Wives' Tales in The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, and The Tempest,” in Criticism, Vol. XL, No. 4, Fall, 1998, pp. 529-53.
[In the following essay, Lamb analyzes the role of women's folk tales and their influence in The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, and The Tempest.]
As Macbeth stares in terror at Banquo's ghost during a banquet for the Scottish lords, Lady Macbeth contemptuously compares his hallucination to oral narratives circulated among women:
O proper stuff! This the very painting of your fear; This the air-drawn dagger which you said Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts (Imposters to true fear) would well become A woman's story at a winter's fire, Authoriz’d by her grandam. Shame itself, Why do you...
[The entire page is 11079 words long]
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