To what extent do you agree with Malcolm's description of Lady Macbeth as a "fiend- like queen"?

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To what extent do you agree with Malcolm’s description of Lady Macbeth as a “fiend- like queen”?

 

Lady Macbeth is without doubt, one of William Shakespeare’s most infamous, interesting and notable creations. She is a character whose dramatic actions provoke a similarly dramatic change of opinion and reaction from the enthralled audience; who see her at first as a devoted wife and then recoil with utmost horror and revulsion at her appeal to the spirits to “unsex” her and fill her with “direst cruelty”. Finally, the audience cannot help but feel sympathy when “by self and violent hands (she) took of her life”.

In Shakespeare’s time, women were identified with a homemaking and childbearing role. They had no input in to their husband’s affairs, and certainly would have not taken on an advisory role. Lady Macbeth bears no resemblance to that description or to that role; in fact, she is clearly the more dominant partner in the marriage and she is very much in control of her husband who regards her as his “dearest partner of greatness”. Her assertiveness would have been unbelievable to an Elizabethan audience, which leads us to the play’s major theme of appearance versus reality. Lady Macbeth is very clever in that she plays on the accepted view of women at the time. Although she appears like a polite and ordinary wife, she is actually a remarkable woman, full of thoughts that would be frightening, not only by Elizabethan standards, but also by today’s standards too- even women in the modern world who plan murders are regarded as ‘unnatural’. Her outward appearance fools a lot of characters in the play, and plays a part in the death of Duncan, who thought that she was a ‘charming hostess’ on the night she was actually planning his murder. Ironically, it was Duncan who said “There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face”. She is the very epitomy of the play’s central theme, stated in the witch’s incantation:  “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”

The first time the audience meets Lady Macbeth is when she is reading the letter from her husband, informing her of the witches’ prediction for their future. The letter is important as it shows us that the Macbeths are communicating in prose. Prose was the type of language used by people who were not highborn.  For example, the drunken porter uses prose. However since the Macbeths are upper class, they should be communicating through blank verse. They are using prose, as the content of the letter is treasonous and contains information about the witches and Macbeth’s deepest desires. At the time Shakespeare was writing, the king was God’s anointed, so to plot to murder him went against all accepted belief- the audience would have been horrified. The letter also reveals more about the Macbeths’ relationship. The typical marital relationships in Elizabethan time were very rigid and structured. In fact, many marriages were arranged, and there was not a lot of love, contact or equality displayed between spouses. Wives were to stay at home and tend to their housekeeping duties and were not to interfere in their husband’s affairs. However, the fact that Macbeth wrote to his wife with his news immediately after the witches’ first prophecy came true, shows us that he has a lot of time and respect for his wife and values and needs her opinion. His respect for his wife is further underlined when he addresses her as his “dearest partner of greatness”. The Macbeths are deeply in love at this stage and very dependant on each other.

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Lady Macbeth reads the letter without any emotion, despite the letter containing several dark and wicked fantasies and after she has finished she is immediately transported into the future. Regardless of the consequences, she plainly understands that Duncan must die and that her husband will become King. However, she knows that her husband is too loyal to murder Duncan and live out his destiny. She analyses her husband with great detachment and is almost cruel. Although she recognises that her husband has ambition, he hasn’t “the illness (that) should attend it”. She observes his good qualities as if they ...

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