Another reason is how Lady Macbeth had great power over her husband. She had the desire for Macbeth to become the king so that she can be the queen, because during the time when this play was written, women did not have any power. Especially over their husbands nor were they allowed to express their opinions. So when Lady Macbeth becomes the queen she will have more power than any other women does. However, the fact that she has the power to control her own husband during the time this play was written makes Lady Macbeth very fascinating and powerful.
An additional reason is that she was the dominant character in the relationship with her husband. She had some masculine qualities than Macbeth as she tried to manipulate him to kill Duncan while he hesitated to. As the play continued she even wished to be unsexed by the spirits so that she can be more masculine. In Act 1 she said "Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty!" which means she doesn’t want her feminine qualities because If she becomes more masculine she can be more wicked and to plan Duncan's murder. Her femininity comes in the way of her evil plans as women were seen as more gentler and kinder than males, but she wanted to have more masculine qualities than she already did to help Macbeth kill Duncan and become king.
Lastly, Lady Macbeth can be considered as an interesting female role because of her change is character as the play continued. At the beginning she was the strong and dominant one as she seemed to desire kingship for Macbeth and wanted to murder Duncan more than Macbeth did. However, soon after Macbeth murdered Duncan and became the king she became the weaker one. While Macbeth became the more stronger and dominant character in the marriage. After Macbeth became the king and planed to murder Banquo and his son to make sure his position as the king was secure. Lady Macbeth was not included in the planning of the murder at all, he persuaded the murderers and planed it all by himself. Lady Macbeth became the weaker one in the marriage as she psychologically broke down because of her growing guilt over her evil actions as she started to sleepwalk, she continuously tried to wash away the imaginary bloodstains on her hands and she also began to talk in her sleep about the murder. In Act 5 she says "Out, damned spot; out, I say. One, two,—why, then ’tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier and afeard? What need we fear who knows it when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?” which shows that her guilt over being the cause of Duncan's death made her insane as she began to hallucinate blood on her hands. She even became so sick that the doctor said he can't do anything to help her. How Lady Macbeth went through all these phases from being the strong character to the weak character made the female role very interesting because its proven that watching characters breakdown are a lot more interesting to watch.
The three witches are another reason why I disagree with the statement that male roles are more interesting than female roles. They are another main reason why Macbeth murdered Duncan as they were the ones who told him that he will become king. If Macbeth and Banquo never encountered the three witches, Lady Macbeth probably wouldn’t have persuaded Macbeth to murder Duncan and so Lady Macbeth and Macbeth wouldn't have died the way they did. This shows how much power the witches have over Macbeth .
The most interesting part about the three witches would be that even though the witches have such great impact over Macbeth and Lady Macbeth they don’t even do anything. They merely make appearances once in a while and predict the future, they don’t even persuade or manipulate Macbeth to do anything. Their words had such power over him and Lady Macbeth.
This clearly shows how Lady Macbeth and the three witches are more interesting roles than the male roles in the play. Both the character are strong, imposing and have such great power and they manipulate it in different ways as their power gives them the upper hand.
However, the male roles such as Macbeth are quite interesting as well. At the beginning of the play he was the weak partner in the marriage. In Act 1, he said "We will proceed no further in this business. He hath honored me of late, and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, Not cast aside so soon." Which shows that he was not evil enough and didn’t want to carry on with the plan, but he got influenced easily by Lady Macbeth and so he committed the murder. Soon after Lady Macbeth broke down because of her guilt he became the dominant partner in the marriage. He didn't even include her when he planned to murder Banquo and his son. He became stronger because the witches made him believe he was invincible and because he was getting what he wanted. Even though he became stronger, he still felt guilty. After he became the king he was too ambitious to allow his conscience to stop him from murdering more people to secure his position as a king.
Another reason why Macbeth is an interesting character is because just a couple of words from three witches who claimed to know the future made Macbeth murder so many people, even his good friend Banquo. After he killed Duncan he got out of control as he became a monster, murdering everyone who was in his way.
Macbeth is a fascinating male character because of the phases he went through from being the weak character hesitating to kill Duncan to become king while his wife was the dominant character trying to persuade him to commit the murder. He also began to murder whoever was in his way just because of the three witches who he encountered who claimed to know the future.
Shakespeare uses many techniques to make a role interesting, such as: the breaking of stereotype, this is what he did with Lady Macbeth. Since during the time this play was written women were not the dominant characters but breaking this stereotype and making Lady Macbeth a dominant character, made her role more interesting; they change throughout the story, whether they change in strength, personality or knowledge. Throughout the story this is what he did with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, they both changed in strength and personality. Lady Macbeth was dominant and Macbeth was the weak one but by the end of the story Lady Macbeth's femininity came in the way and so she became the weak one while Macbeth became the dominant one. This makes the character interesting because the audience will actually see them as a well-rounded character; the characters should be realistic and believable. They should have flaws and strengths just like people in the real world. This makes the characters interesting as the characters can be relatable to the audience and finally, the character should have inner conflict. For example, Macbeth, as in the beginning when Lady Macbeth was trying to persuade him to murder Duncan, this is probably when he has inner conflict between good and evil. If he should or should not commit the murder to become king. This makes the character interesting because this technique causes tension to watch the character face difficult decisions.
In conclusion, I disagree with the statement that male roles are more interesting than female roles, because I think the female roles such as Lady Macbeth and the three witches are more interesting than the male roles in Macbeth. As Lady Macbeth has so much power over her husband which breaks the stereotype of women during this play was written and her personality and strength changes as the play continues. The three witches have the most power in the whole book as Macbeth did what he has done because of what the witches had told him. The most interesting part would be that the witches don’t do much, they just tell him his prophecies and the story went the way it did because of the witches. If they didn’t tell him the prophecies Macbeth wouldn’t have murdered all the people he did and so Lady Macbeth and Macbeth wouldn’t have died the way they did. On the other hand, there are male roles which are interesting as well such as Macbeth. They way he changed as the story continued made his character quite interesting. However, the female roles were more interesting than the male roles as Shakespeare used many techniques to makes the female roles more interesting.
