Analysis of the context of Macbeth, linking to Shakespeares purpose and the character of Lady Macbeth and the patriarchal society along with alternate interpretations.
Shakespeare got married at 18 years old which was extraordinary then like it is now. His
wife, Anne Hathaway was 26 with was even more extortionary then it is now. This is
because 26 was considered half way though your life. Life expectancy was considered into
you 50s is your survived your childhood. Shakespeare himself died in his early 50s. So their
relationship must have been a strange one. Their daughter Susanna was born 6 moths after
marriage, so Anne must have been pregnant when they married. So we can assume that
that was part of the reason why they got married.
What does this have to do with Macbeth?
LADY MACBETH
First we need to analyse the character of lady Macbeth.
When Shakespeare creates her does he create her as a patriarchal victim? A patriarchy is
the name of any society controlled by men. So if she is a patriarchal victim that means she is
the victim of society which is controlled by men. We can see that that is probably true. We
can read the play to suggest that she really desires power but the only way to get power is
through marrying Macbeth and the to gain more power she has to persuade macbeth to get
more power himself. She cant do anything in her own right. When she actually tries to do
something, to kill Duncan, she find that she doesn’t actually have the power to do it because
she is overcome with empathy, Duncan reminds her of her father and she simply can’t kill
him. Her father then becomes a symbol of the patriarchal society. It is a society controlled
by men, women are controlled by their fathers and she cant overcome that. If we go back to
Shakespeare’s marriage, he is perhaps showing something slightly different. Anne Hathaway
is presumably doing something which her parents wouldn’t approve, she is getting pregnant
before she has gotten married and she is marrying William Shakespeare who is possibly not
in any condition, when he marries her, to look after her and provide for her. He si not really
a mature enough adult to have build up any kind of property or income. Nevertheless she
takes the decision that she will marry him. So we can look at Shakespeares marriage as
proof that he was opposed to the patriarchal society. HE therefore created lady Macbeth in
order to show that the patriarchal society was wrong and her tragedy is that she can’t
escape that.
Next we can start looking at lady Macbeth as a powerful and intelligent woman. We can see
her intelligence in the way that she knows exactly what to say to Macbeth to persuade him
to kill Duncan. Without going though all the arguments, she plays on his fear of being seen
as a coward, she plays on his Greif at the loss of their newborn baby and uses that against
him. She also uses his love for her against him as well, she asks him to prove his love. What
does that have to do with shakespeares marriage? We can see Anne as possibly highly
intelligent and perhaps manipulating Shakespeare. What 18 year old would chose to marry a
26 year old woman? Perhaps one that had got her pregnant and didn’t see another way out.
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