Unsex me here” Lady Macbeth as a Disruptive Force in Macbeth Saman Ali Mohammed Department of EnglishLanguage, University of Human Development http://uhd.edu.iq Abstract- "William Shakespeare‟s Macbeth was most likely written in 1606, three years into the reign of
James I, James VI of Scotland since 1567 before he achieved the English throne in 1603. Macbeth
is Shakespeare‟s shortest tragedy yet it is one of his most influential and emotionally intense plays.
Macbeth portrays “the paralyzing, almost complete destruction of human spirit” (Shanley 307).
Like most of Shakespeare‟s plays, Macbeth deals with the question of kingship and portrays the
“problems of legitimacy and succession” surrounding serious political power that belonged to the
monarch, the court and the royal councils (Hadfield 27). Numerous historical and literary studies
have been conducted about various topics in Macbeth such as human desire, cruelty, and guilt.
Gender role and its relation with power also have a great significance to the interpretation of the
play.
Shakespeare substantially emphasizes the male-female relationship and gender dynamic and
does not seem to treat gender simply as binary example of male/female. Shakespeare shows the
relationship between gender and power which can be related to the patriarchal discourse of early
modern England. He portrays women as major determinants in men‟s actions but “their function
varies throughout the canon” and also in distinct categories of either “good or evil, victims or
monsters” (Berggren 18, 11). Men are portrayed as strong willed and courageous, but female
character like Lady Macbeth is also given a ruthless, power-hungry personality, which is typically,
in the period, more associated with masculinity. Lady Macbeth, one of the main characters in
Macbeth, is deeply ambitious and her role is essentially important to further understanding
Shakespeare‟s presentation of female characters. In this paper, I will provide a brief context of
Macbeth in terms of contemporary issues about sovereignty. I will closely examine the role of
women in Macbeth, precisely Lady Macbeth, in Macbeth‟s downfall, particularly focusing on how
and why Lady Macbeth is an unsettling and disruptive force to the order of the sovereignty. The
paper will cover the contemporary issue of witchcraft, to suggest that Lady Macbeth‟s gender can
be associated with supernatural subversion, as well as sexual temptation and the period‟s
perspective about it. The paper discusses masculinity in relation to Lady Macbeth and the
relationship between the plays actions and the natural order to suggest that natural order better
reveals Lady Macbeth‟s disruption as well as the notion of monster in Macbeth. This essay will end
by discussing the significance of the events that happen to both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth after
the murder act and a conclusion." Date: 10/12/2017 14:00:00 Place: Hall 176 |
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