Lady Macbeth might be your new IT girl
Thank you and welcome back my dear readers!
I believe some of you have heard of William Shakespeare and some of his phenomenal plays such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, or Midsummer night’s dream. This week, I’m continuing my journey of discovering myself through understanding literature’s one of the best female antagonists in one of Shakespeare’s tragedies, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth.
“Macbeth” is a story about a Scottish General named Macbeth who received a prophecy by three witches that one day he would be King of Scotland. He then murdered his king, King Duncan to take the throne. Once the blood was on his hand, he had to continue committing more murders to protect himself and his wife from hostility and suspicion.
Does he seem like a villain to you? Yes! But indeed, the brain behind his actions belongs to his wife, Lady Macbeth who also happens to be our today’s topic.
1. Don't be afraid to be an ambitious woman:
Lady Macbeth is an example of women at that time having intelligence, ambition, and courage which were weighed down by societal norms. She is fully aware of her capability, but she couldn’t take the actions herself due to the social constraints in the year 1050. Therefore, she persuaded and manipulated her husband to implement the plan for her.
Lady Macbeth constantly represents the ideals and characteristics attributed to other masculine characters throughout the play. For instance, when Macbeth hoped there was a way to become a king without murdering anyone, his wife’s point of view was the opposite. She even prayed the super nature to unsex her so she could do it all by herself. “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.” (Barton n.d., p. 14)
Therefore, we can see the theme of gender-power connection was exhibited strongly in the personality of Lady Macbeth. She is a perfect combination of masculinity and modern feminist. We can sometimes experience that situation in modern marriages, can’t we? When is the wife more powerful and ambitious than her husband?
In the 21st century, people begin to empower women to possess more opportunities to make their own decisions, which they couldn’t do before (In 2016). If Lady Macbeth were born in our time, she would make a wonderful Queen.
This woman has taught me to be eager, to strive for my inner power, and not to be afraid because I’m a girl, especially when we are now given a chance to do so, but less dramatic than Lady Macbeth, of course.
2. There is goodness inside every dark soul:
Despite what I’ve presented to you above about the boldness and ruthlessness of Lady Macbeth, deep down inside, she is still a sensitive and genuine woman.
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There are many details throughout the play that conflicts with the theme Shakespeare attached to her. If we look closely, we may find the dissimilarities between Lady Macbeth’s true self and the self she wanted to be.
For example, when she boasted to Macbeth that if she had pledged to murder her child, she would have “dashes its brain out” without any hesitation (Spark Notes n.d.). Nonetheless, she only said she would, not she had done it.
Moreover, there is another contrast between her darkness and her warm heart presented on the night of King Duncan’s murder. While she was waiting for Macbeth to assassinate his king, Lady Macbeth confessed that “Had he not resembled/ My father as he slept, I had done’t.” (Barton n.d., p. 21). Despite the ruthlessness and violence she demonstrated, her actions tell a completely different story.
Even though Lady Macbeth’s desire and mercilessness may scare me at the beginning, she still gives me hope that the light can still be found in every lost dark soul. However, it does not apply to all circumstances, of course.
3. We all must pay for our wrongdoings:
Despite being an interesting and somewhat inspirational character, we cannot escape the fact that Lady Macbeth is a manipulative and wicked woman who indirectly harms many people.
Some of us may have heard of the Great Law of Cause and Effect in the Buddhist religion which states that “As you sow, as shall you reap!”, it’s also called “karma” (Jain 2018). That means sorrow or happiness that happened in one’s life relates to karma, resulted from every negative and positive action one commits.
This law reflects quite precisely on Lady Macbeth at the end of the tale. As her strength, passion, and sanity were replaced by remorse, and her guilt is subconsciously conveyed through her dreams and is evidenced by her sleepwalking. That ultimately led to her suicide.
By portraying her guilt in that way, Shakespeare reinforces the Law of Cause and Effect and indicates that we cannot escape remorse from our misconduct, no matter how hard we may attempt to cleanse ourselves.
Through Lady Macbeth’s death, I’ve learned to be careful with the way I treat people or myself because ultimately, we cannot escape the karmic cycle and every action we commit in our lives has its consequence.
Word count: 853
Reference list:
Barton, R n.d., Macbeth, Shakespeare Out Loud, <https://www.sd43.bc.ca/school/terryfox/ProgramsServices/LearningLab/Shakespeare%20Resources/Macbeth/Macbeth%20-%20Shakespeare%20Outloud.pdf>
In, J 2016, ‘What is women’s empowerment?’, Huffpost, 8 March, viewed 17 July 2019, <https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-is-womens-empowerment_b_9399668>
Jain, A 2018, ‘The Law of Karma – made easy’, Medium, viewed 17 July 2019, <https://medium.com/indian-thoughts/the-law-of-karma-made-easy-26e25754a91d>
Spark Notes n.d., ‘Is Lady Macbeth a Villain or a Victim?’, Spark Notes, viewed 18 July 2019, <https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/macbeth/central-idea-essay/is-lady-macbeth-a-villain-or-a-victim/>