Mini Essay Number One
In Macbeth, women are sometimes portrayed as very masculine and commanding.
The witches are seen as very repulsive and man like by the characters in the play, but are also seen as a force that most do not want to muddle with. Lady Macbeth is also viewed as very powerful, masculine, and ultimately brutal. As well as being masculine, Lady Macbeth gives off a sense of weakness.
From the very beginning of the play, we get a glimpse of the three ugly witches.
Paddock Calls; – anon.
Fair is foul, and foul is fair,
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
(I, i, 10-12)
By chanting about how “fair is foul”, and “foul is fair” the witches show that they are capable of terrible things as they are very powerful. They are seen as being very mannish and unattractive as well. Banquo talks about how unsightly the witches are and how man-like their appearances and characteristics are (I, ii, 40-48).
Another example of the strange portrayal of women in this play is Lady Macbeth’s extraordinary sense of masculinity and overall cruelty. In Act 1, Lady Macbeth talks about how she wishes to be rid herself of her womanly qualities so that she may become more powerful and dominant. Lady Macbeth is also irritated by her husband’s weakness and she wishes that the gods would just make her much less feminine and more capable of wrong-doing.
…Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse …
(I, vi, 44-47)
What Lady Macbeth is saying is that she simply wants to become capable of committing sinister things and have no remorse for it. She wants to be cruel and more ruthless. Lady Macbeth is the more dominant person in her marriage and she wants that to be acknowledged while she tries to convince...