By assuming a nontraditional role as the dominant spouse in her relationship with Macbeth, Lady Macbeth leads her husband down a path of violence and treachery which puts her strength in a negative light. A part of Lady Macbeth’s power is signified through the fact that she is nameless. The idea of being identified only by her husband’s name makes Lady Macbeth at first appear subservient, implying that her identity is bound by the character and actions of her husband. Once Lady Macbeth’s personality is revealed, however, her lack of a name becomes a form of empowerment. By assuming her husband’s name, it makes them equals and gives her the power to be as strong as a husband is supposed to be and leave the weaknesses of womanhood behind. Lady Macbeth’s character fully embraces the empowerment that her name provides her with. After reading the news of the witches’ prophecies for her husband, she says, “Glamis thou art and Cawdor, and shalt be/What thou art promised. Yet I do fear thy nature/It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness/To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great/Art not without ambition, but without/The illness should attend it” (I.v.14-19). This commandment that her husband will undoubtedly climb to the rank of king immediately puts Lady Macbeth in the role of a dominant wife as these are the first lines that she directly says. She further questions if Macbeth possesses the maliciousness to commit the act of murder to become king , which implies that she is not only familiar with the qualities needed for this task, but in fact possesses them herself. This idea that she is more complete and fit to carry out the task than her husband is extremely beyond any idea of what an Elizabethan woman should be because it puts her both mentally and physically superior to her husband. Lady Macbeth, in fact, never lets the confines of her gender bind her and directly criticizes her husband’s cowardice by declaring, “I have given suck and know how tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me/I would, while it was smiling in my face/Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums/And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you/Have done to this” (I.vii.54-59). This gruesome idea that Lady Macbeth would brutally murder her own child before admitting defeat is extremely unwomanly. Especially in this time, one of a woman’s most important qualities of motherhood and her responsibility to take care of children, so the fact that Lady Macbeth puts invalidates the importance of motherhood points to her unwomanly lack of compassion. This image of a heartless being in a woman’s body therefore leaves the audience uneasy as her empowerment reveals itself to have negative intentions as she leads her husband down a murderous path.
Shakespeare Uncovered:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1fkrT0lxrg (20:00-26:00)
Shakespeare Uncovered:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1fkrT0lxrg (20:00-26:00)