Lady Macbeth

In the the book Macbeth, the main character Lady Macbeth is one of the most frightening and the most commanding female character. When we first met her in the play she is already planning to kill Duncan so that way her husband can become the King.  She pressures her husband and manipulates him to kill Duncan by calling him a coward by saying " live a coward in thine own esteem letting I will not." she is saying that she did not marry Macbeth only to realize that he might be a coward and not brave or determined enough to want the crown. She also plays on the fact that she wants him to succeed a by saying "Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valor as art in desire", she knows that Macbeth wants to succeed and she is pushing him to kill. At one point, I think Lady Macbeth wished she was not women and could do the deed herself.

The relationship between gender and power in this book is obvious and that Lady Macbeth holds all the power over husband. Lady Macbeth has a more masculine soul but a feminine body, which seems to lead to violence. Normally, men are the violent ones and the females are the quiet ones that stand aside while their husband does the violent deed. But it is different in Macbeth in the sense that she wants to commit the violent deeds so that her husband succeeds. Also Lady Macbeth is able to steady her husband after the deed is done which is remarkable and yet again its reversed roles in male in female in the sense that Macbeth acts more like a female than Lady Macbeth. I think Lady Macbeth reminds me of Mod from Beowulf because she is able to things that women are not able to do in stories like take charge. These two female characters are the kinds of women that know how to take charge and handle the situation like any male character would.


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