These are the words that Lady MacBeth speaks when she has discovered how the witches have told MacBeth that he would be king. Lady MacBeth is an interesting character because she does not act very "lady-like". She is very dominant and manipulative person. She does whatever is needed to obtain whatever she wants. From the quote from above the phrase "unsex me" is an interesting phrase because to me its meaning that she wants to be stripped of her womanly limitations and do the things that she wants to do. MacBeth even says to her "For thy undaunted mettle should compose nothing but males" (Shakespeare, 22). What he is saying is how Lady MacBeth has such a dominating personality that its very masculine. This character reminds me of Jezebel from the Bible. She is known for her overpowering behavior where her authority surpassed that of the King's. To me I believe that Lady MacBeth is the same.
I agree with you on Lady Macbeth. In terms of gender roles and norms I see her as a more "manly" character than Macbeth himself as she's very, as you said, dominant and masculine. I think that this play has a lot of disruptions of roles and order and Lady Macbeth plays one of them.
ReplyDeleteI am definitely interested in reading about this character in the rest of the play.
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