I have the most important exams of my life tmrw for the next month straight and I sincerely ask each and every one of you to please do Dua I GET THE HIGHEST GRADES POSSIBLE IN ALL MY EXAMS AND DO DUA I LEARN EVERYTHING EASILY
Thank you very much may allah grant you all jannah
As we all know gcses have started for some of us and are fast approaching.
My school does not have any English teachers and I would like if one could have a look at my essay.
The question is from the 2024 paper and is how is lady Macbeth presented as a strong female character?
Here is my response:
Lady macbeth is presented as a strong female character due to her significant role in the regicide of king duncan. Lady macbeth manipulates macbeth into murdering king duncan by questioning his masculinity. This gave her complete control over macbeth as she used his ambition against him. However later in the play she experiences a psychological downfall resulting in her commiting suicide and therefore relinquishing any strength or control she once had.
At the start of the play in this extract lady macbeth hopes to damage the ego of macbeth hoping to establish dominance over him and convince him into committing regicide. She questions if macbeth should "live a coward in thine own esteem". Here lady macbeth is emasculating macbeth as a method of convincing him to murder king duncan. She is making him question his masculinity and without his masculinity macbeth knows he is nothing. She calls him a "coward" which implies she thinks macbeth is a weak, scared individual who is definitely not a man. Furthermore she says "have plucked my nipple... as you have done to this". The verb "plucked" and phrase "nipple from his boneless gums" provides imagery of a baby. A baby cannot make its own decisions and needs to be assisted and looked after at all times. Lady macbeth is trying to establish dominance over macbeth as she is pulling the strings and she will tell him what he can and cannot do. Moreover she encourages him with the verb phrase "dashed the brains out" This vivid imagery is lady macbeth reinforcing the idea of what a man is to macbeth especially in victorian society. The verb "dashed" suggests no bother or care and further no remorse or regret. It makes the imagery feel normal. In jacobean society a brave soldier who was extremely violent and committed horrid acts such as unseaming someone from "the nave to the chops" as macbeth did is what really made a man. Macbeth not wanting to be stripped of his masculinity and consumed by ambition decides to follow through with the murder. However it would not have been possible without the force and manipulation of lady macbeth.
Still early in the play during Macbeth's soliloquy, Lady Macbeth is still presented as a strong female character due to her extreme dominance and control exerted over Macbeth. In his soliloquy Macbeth describes his "heat oppressed brain". The "brain" controls everything including your actions. At this point in the play Macbeth is accepting and come to peace with the fact that his thoughts are no longer his own and he is being controlled by an external force which also we know to be Lady Macbeth. However we could refer to Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory and his structural theory of the mind. He mentions that everyone has the instinct to worship. Macbeth is shown to be a slave and to worship his desires. However he is reminded of his desires and told his desires by Lady Macbeth. Moreover in this act he is hallucinating with a dagger in his hand which foreshadows his physiological downfall later in the play. The oxymoronic phrase "oppressed brain" suggests your brain is meant to be free and not controlled which could be a reason for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's psychological downfall later in the play.
During the middle of the play Lady Macbeth’s strength is highlighted due to the adverse effect she has had on Macbeth. The witches mention "something wicked this way comes". This is a juxtaposition as a king is meant to represent everything good about his nation and a symbol of power however in this quote he is referred to as the opposite; a figure of disgust and evil. This highlights Macbeth’s immense transformation as the witches are in awe when they see him. The witches are evil and Macbeth as a king is meant to be God’s advocate on earth. However as Macbeth is not in the Great Chain of Being and he tried to disrupt natural order by killing the king and committing regicide, he is illegitimate. Furthermore he is not a true representative of God and instead a representative of the devil. He is seen as an object of disgust even to the supernatural beings, which highlights how far gone he is and his immense transformation due to Lady Macbeth waving his desires in front of him and metaphorically casting a spell on him. Moreover the word "something" is chremamorphism which strips Macbeth of his humanity further emphasizing his devil like qualities. Lady Macbeth is the cause of all this due to her strong grasp on Macbeth.
At the end of the play, Lady Macbeth is dead and has therefore relinquished her control over Macbeth. Macbeth thinks "life is but a walking shadow". Lady Macbeth has lost her strength along with her life as her psychological reign over Macbeth is gone now that she is dead. Macbeth is now in shock and for a partial moment reaches a moment of anagnorisis which is tragic self realisation. The word "shadow" symbolizes Macbeth’s desires and goals which he spent all his time chasing but never satisfied as he never caught it. It is here in this moment Macbeth realizes killing Duncan and Macduff’s family and Banquo was useless as he would never be happy; his attempts to fulfill his desires are futile. He shows regret but it is too little too late. The verb "walking" implies a constant chore but clearly not fast enough as he never caught it. It is here Macbeth realizes the danger of following your id. And it is here where Lady Macbeth is no longer presented as a strong female character yet insignificant and a metaphor for disgust and shame. She was clearly never as strong as portrayed as her consumption of guilt causes her to take her own life.
Overall Lady Macbeth is successfully portrayed as a strong female character in the extract and most of the play right until the end where she relinquishes all her strength by taking her own life.