3/8/2024 0 Comments Lady macbeth characters traitsThus, she resorts to forget the problems as she refuses to emotionally cope with the awkward memory of her disloyalty towards her husband. She is portrayed as a mother who, in her awareness of Hamlet’s crisis, feels guilty and is reluctant to confront the unpleasant situation in front of her. Being weak and passive, she silently goes along the decisions of Claudius or Polonius. While others like Loberg believe that, she was the passive aggressor (60). As Sadwoski points out, “she has no hidden agenda” (141). Gertrude, on the other hand, is the static queen. Macbeth is just the enactor of the actions designed by his wife and no more. She leaves her feminine side aside due to her resolve to throne her husband as the king. She is the planner, while her husband becomes the executor: “Leave all the rest to me” (1.5.73). She derides Macbeth when he tries to dissuade her to pursue their plan: “Art thou afread / To be the same in thine own act and valor, / As though act in desire?” (1.7.39-41) Her determination to get the throne becomes apparent when she takes control of the situation realizing her husband’s effeminate nature. The strength of her character becomes more evident when the reader finds Macbeth incapable of taking a decision on his own and relying on his wife’s judgment. She is skillful in hiding her true emotions behind her feminine innocence (Sadowski 286). Her politically agile mind comes alive as she instructs the novice in the Machiavellian game: “To beguile the time, / Look like the time bear welcome in your eye, / Your hand, your tongue: look like th’ innocent flower, / But be the serpent under’t” (1.5.63-66). She is convinced that Duncan will not be able to leave their castle alive she says, “O! never / Shall sin that morrow see!” (1.5.60-61). Once she comes to know of the witches’ prophecy, she immediately feels that it will come true “I feel now / the future in the instant” (1.5.57-58). Therefore, she uses her emotional domination over her husband to persuade him to murder Duncan in order to become the king. Nowhere in the play do we see Macbeth as a feminine or weak character, but Lady Macbeth believes that her husband’s scruples would prevent him from achieving his ambitions of becoming a king. This unsexing of Lady Macbeth’s character becomes evident with expressions like “take my milk for gall” that shows a classic suppression of her femininity and motherhood (1.5.51-52). The realization of her husband’s inefficiencies makes her assume the role of the ‘man’ in the relationship. By associating him with the feminine task of nurturing, Lady Macbeth projects herself as the masculine ‘other’. It is too full o’th’ milk of human kindness” (1.5.16-17).Įvidently, Lady Macbeth compares her husband to a woman and believes that despite his valor in battlefield, he will not be able to murder Duncan. When she is informed of the witches’ prophecy she immediately expresses her fear that her husband may not be able to seize the opportunity as he was too weak to finish what he’s supposed to do: “Yet I do fear thy nature. In the first act, we witness Lady Macbeth’s assertive nature opposed to her husband’s gentle character. The masculine traits of the female character in Macbeth are evident. Lady Macbeth, one of Shakespeare’s most villainous female characters, is assertive, independent, and intelligent. In Hamlet, Gertrude is weak, passive, and static while in Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is independent, strong, and proactive. I believe their difference lies in their temperament and personality. Their similarity ends as far as their role as queen and kingmaker goes, but their inherent natures are so starkly different that they come out to become two different people altogether. Gertrude acts as a passive aid to Claudius’s agenda to become the king, while Lady Macbeth is the plotting mind behind the murderous Macbeth. However, when she realizes the monstrous nature of Claudius, she resigns to passivity, with little will or ability to make amends. Gertrude, static and passive, is torn between the love of her son and her second husband. This resulted in the demise of their relationship and eventually Lady Macbeth’s death. Her ambition and ascendancy drives Macbeth to commit heinous crimes and turns him into a monster.
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