Female Characters Through The Tragedy Of Macbeth

When Shakespeare was at his prime, women were considered to be sweet, docile housewives who knew their place and let the men take over. Most of the writers of the period believed this, and that often revealed itself in their work. William Shakespeare, arguably one of the greatest playwrights to ever exist, challenged that notion of weak-willed women in his work, instead choosing to fill his plays with fully fleshed-out female characters in one of his most popular tragedies: Macbeth.

In Macbeth, there are really only two women in the entirety of the play: Lady Macbeth and Lady Macduff.

Lady Macbeth is stern, ruthless, and not afraid to tell her husband what to do. On the other hand, Lady Macduff is a mother who is domestic and cares for her children. Through her loving actions and words, Lady Macduff serves as Lady Macbeth’s foil by contrasting, and thus making, Lady Macbeth’s violent and heartless tendencies more apparent.

Though she only appears in one scene, Lady Macduff still leaves a mark as being a strong-willed, good-hearted, maternal character.

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After Macduff flees to England in search of Malcolm, Lady Macduff talks with her cousin, Ross, who is a Scottish noble in the king’s court. She shares her frustration with her husband for leaving her and their kids, saying that “To leave his wife, to leave his babes… He loves us not he wants the natural touch; for the poor wren, the most diminutive of birds, will fight her young ones in her nest, against the owl”.

Lady Macduff unfavorably compares her husband to a wren, who, even as the smallest type of bird, would fight against an enemy in an attempt to protect its babies. She is angry at him for doing what she believes is the complete opposite: abandoning their children out of fear of the enemy, not as a way to fight back.

Not long after Ross leaves, a messenger arrives bearing ominous news: danger is on its way, and Lady Macbeth should leave immediately if she wishes to save herself and her children. Once the messenger leaves, the murderers enter looking for Macduff and his family on Macbeth’’s orders. They corner Lady Macduff, asking where her husband is so they can kill him. She, a loyal wife, retorts, “I hope, in no place so unsanctified where such as thou mayst find him”. Here she is saying that she hopes that Macduff is someplace where the murderers cannot reach him. This short line clearly demonstrates how Lady Macduff genuinely loves her husband, even after all the insults she had hurled his way not long before. The Madcuffs have a strong, loving relationship; this is further shown in the next scene, when Macduff is told of his family’s murder and he has such a true, grief-induced reaction that Malcolm can’t help but join in his cause. This is quite unlike the Macbeths’ marriage, which starts strong but withers down as the play goes on; in a stark contrast to Macduff and Lady Macduff, Macbeth’s reaction to his wife's death is no reaction at all-- he can barely grieve for her anymore.

Lady Macbeth is known as being cruel, ruthless, and insulting, especially as she was the mastermind behind Duncan’s murder; without her insistence, it is improbable that Macbeth could have actually followed through and committed the crime, let alone slaughter his future victims. Following Macbeth’s first encounter with the witches, he sends Lady Macbeth a letter to inform her on the witches’ prophecy, and she is later alerted that the present king is headed to their castle right now. Lady Macbeth, immediately realizing that for the prophecy to be fulfilled they must kill Dunvcan, starts to plan and calls out “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here and fill me… full of direst cruelty… come to my woman’s breasts and take my milk for gall”. In these lines she wants her womanhood taken away, her innocence, which she fears will hold her back when the time comes; she even goes as far as wanting her breast milk to be filled with bile, just to make her as unwomanly and as innocent as she can. She wants to have no remorse and to only be full of cruelty, as she says. These are some of Lady Macbeth's first lines, Shakespeare immediately paints her as a ruthless and violent woman, with her heart already set on murder.

Lady Macduff protects her husband, and tries to protect her children, even as she is about to be killed, but Lady Macbeth wants to rid herself of this “innocence”. At the end of the act, before Duncan’s arrival, Macbeth starts to become more nervous and attempts to back out of their ploy, but Lady Macbeth talks him back into it. “I have given suck, and know how tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me,” she proclaims, “I would, while it was smiling in my face have plucked my nippple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out, had I sworn as you have done to this”. She berates him for trying to retreat, stating that if she had promised him to do so, she would kill her own child, no matter the love she feels for them. Unlike Lady Macduff’s genuine devotion towards her children, Lady Macbeth would bash in a baby’s head because of a verbal agreement. This callous attitude towards children is possibly the most obvious difference between the two ladies; Lady Macbeth is almost like an anti-mother, a woman you would never expect to have a child of her own, while Lady Macduff possesses all the qualities you would expect of someone who would. By act 5, Lady Macbeth’s relationship with her husband has not only dwindled, but so has her mental health. Macbeth, once her partner-in-crime, has abandoned her, choosing instead to fight for his spot on the throne against Malcolm, Macduff, and the English army headed their way. Lady Macbeth, now ridden with guilt, has ended up sleepwalking as she tries to gain repentance for what she has done. “Out, damned spot!” she cries, “....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..”Lady Macbeth has been reduced to wandering the castle, asleep, and trying to wash an imaginary bloodstain off her hands. She is saying that there is no reason to be afraid because no one can pin anything on them, but she still can’t deal with her acts and the effects they’ve had. Too full of guilt, and her relationship with her husband seemingly at an impasse, Lady Macbeth ends her own life. This reveals a lesser known difference between the two wives: Lady Macduff, when abandoned by her husband, stays strong, while Lady Macbeth starts to slowly lose her mind and ultimately ends up killing herself. Lady Macduff’s golden heart leads to her murder, but Lady Macbeth’s ruthlessness leads to her suicide. Though both ladies end up in a grave, they get there through different paths.

In Macbeth, Shakespeare presents two ladies with different ideologies; in simple terms, one is inherently bad, and the other is good. By showing just how much Lady Macduff’s traits differ from Lady Macbeth’s, the latter’s deep-rooted cold-bloodedness is further emphasized. Along with showing each woman’s contrasting characteristics, Shakespeare takes this idea a step further and even presents a concept in which a horrible woman gets what she wanted, and the woman with the heart of gold fails, instead of the other way around. His work, though ahead of its time with its portrayal of strong-willed women, is still relevant today, seeing as these same powerful female figures struggle to achieve their goals and be taken seriously, much like those in the 16th century.