Lady Macbeth Reverts to the Stereotypical Female (#6)

For this week's blog post, I wanted to focus on the emphasis of Lady Macbeth reverting back to what the stereotype for women was typically shown to be. At the beginning of the play, I truly enjoyed how Lady Macbeth was portrayed to not be part of that norm. She was extremely outspoken and clearly very intelligent. Lady Macbeth did not comply to the expectations of other women and as a result gained much control over her husband, Macbeth, and his actions. But you see a shift throughout the play. It could be argued that at the start of the play, Macbeth takes on the role of a stereotypical while Lady Macbeth takes on a more stereotypical male role. Towards the end of the play, you can see a dramatic shift. Macbeth gains his "manhood" back and Lady Macbeth loses all her power as well as her sanity. Shakespeare describes Lady Macbeth as a stereotypical woman during this time period. She is seen as essentially going crazy - sleepwalking, convinced that she has blood on her hands saying, "Yet here's a spot... Out, damned spot; out I say" (Act V, 27-30). This seems to be the built up guilt brought on by the murders. When the physician came to see Lady Macbeth, they conclude that she needed a priest to "save" her, showing how far her mind had gone. Her thoughts drive Lady Macbeth to commit suicide which leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth at the end of this play.

Although this shift is interesting in regards to the plot, it seems to me that Shakespeare truly digresses what the narrative of women should be. He could have handled her character in more of a progressive manner, rather than reverting her back to the ways of typical women. Without these uses of stereotypes, this text could easily be used as an early feminist text. Having a female victor during this time period would have been earth-shattering, but unfortunately, Shakespeare did not take that route.

Comments

  1. Gina EnyartOctober 15, 2017 at 5:09 PM

    I really agreed with your blog post, and I found the shift in roles between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth extremely irritating. Your description of how Shakespeare sees the role of women is spot on, and I don't think it's fair to have Lady Macbeth revert back to the stereotype that has been placed on women. I also agree that Shakespeare should have slowed down the rate in which she goes back to the ways of a typical female, during that time, would have made the story more interesting.

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  2. UnknownOctober 19, 2017 at 10:19 PM

    Yes I agree that lady Macbeth reverts back to the stereotypical female. I kinda wrote something similar to this in my last blog pot. The roles towards the end begin to shift when Macbeth started to take control in deciding who is going to die so that way he can continue to take over the thrown. While lady Macbeth reverts back to being a sensitive female. In the beginning, Lady Macbeth was the women making all the moves and was taking on the role as the man of the relationship. Macbeth was the sensitive female that let his emotions get the best of him when he first killed Duncan. I feel like Shakespeare should have kept Lady Macbeth as the lead character in being the powerful female role in the book.

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