Role Reversal within Macbeth :: Essays Papers

Role Reversal within Macbeth Shakespe ars Macbeth documents a humanitys desire for power, and the reachous acts that he commits in order to puddle it. Nevertheless, it equally focuses on his power-crazed wife and her amplified drive for control. Macbeth and his wife are united by more than holy matrimony. Shakespeare creates an intriguing relationship that traces the downfall of non a single person, but an entity comprised of two. The concentration is enjoin on this one through the plot progression within Macbeth, in which the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are reversed. Even upon the first introduction of the Macbeths, it is evident that they do not fend for the stereotypical men and women of Shakespeares day. In public, Lady Macbeth plays the traditional woman of the house and hostess while Macbeth is acknowledged by his colleagues as a trigger-happy and loyal warrior however, the Macbeths behave quite the opposite when in only all(prenominal) others company. Lad y Macbeth blatantly distinguishes herself as the dominant guide in the relationship. For instance, when Macbeth is unsure of how to manage Duncans visit to Inverness, Lady Macbeth instantaneously seizes control of the situation, demanding that Macbeth put/This nights great business into my withdraw (1.6. 79-80). This type of behavior from a woman was unheard of in Shakespeares time according to Roland Muschat Frye, who states, This evil consists in Lady Macbeths usurping, as a wife, that conjugal authority which Shakespeares age regarded as of course and irrevocably assigned to the husband (102). Macbeth, however, displays no interest in presume command and is portrayed as subservient to his overbearing wife, as Frye confirms, tour Lady Macbeth unsexed herself, Macbeth profaned his sex by submission to her (104). Hence, fifty-fifty from the start, the Macbeths personalities reflect the inverse of the social standard of that time. As the play proceeds, however, the proportion ateness of this relation will reverse. Macbeth and his wife clearly exchange roles in basis of the amount of ambition they display. Although both characters blatantly crave power, it is Lady Macbeth who is initially presented as the driving force in the relationship. Her intentions are purely directed toward obtaining immediate power. For example, upon first learning about the witches predictions, she immediately devises a murder plot and takes charge of the situation. This is made evident as she coldly explains to her husband, solo look up clear,/To alter favor ever is to fear.