Evil Women Essay -- essays papers

Evil Women Women are not always the affectionate, compassionate, and nurturing people that humanly instincts make them out to be. On the contrary, they are sometimes more ruthless and savage than their male counterparts. A good example of this idea is in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Through the use of various feminine roles throughout the play, Shakespeare manages to portray how dramatically important the witches are, along with how imminent greed and power can eventually grasp hold of Lady Macbeth’s morals, and thrust her into a state of emotional stupor. Shakespeare begins the play with the witches for several reasons. First, the fact that they are witches portrays many evil themes since witches are a universal symbol for an advocate of the devil. They themselves foreshadow malign events to come. For example, to add to the witches’ representation of evil, the clichà ©d background is that of thunder and lightening, which also represents wickedness and confusion. Shakespeare also uses the witches to give some background to the play; they decide to meet with Macbeth â€Å"when the battle’s lost and won†. Here, Shakespeare makes clear the fact that there is a battle taking place and Macbeth is involved. They choose to meet with Macbeth â€Å"upon the heath†, wherein a heath is described as being uncultivated, open land. The uncultivated aspect of the heath can be used to foretell the uncivilized intentions the witches have for Macbeth. The last line of the scene is immensely important, for when the wit ches say that â€Å"fair is foul, and foul is fair†, the reader Komery later understands that this is the main theme of the play. This implies that appearances can be deceiving. What appears to be good can be bad, and this ... ...me will to have the throne, even at the cost of her own offspring. Similar to the witches, after Lady Macbeth states her desires to become male, Macbeth enters her room, and a discussion about the murder of King Duncan ensues. The dramatic effect that the witches and Lady Macbeth bring to the play is great. Without them, there would be no play, since Macbeth would have never even considered killing his faithful friend, King Duncan. Yet, because of them, he becomes torn between his lover and his comrade. Lady Macbeth’s greed for power overwhelms her to the point where she would sacrifice anybody that stands in her path. The witches toyed with Macbeth’s head just enough so that he thought he could commit the murder within reason. In the end, these two rationalities led to the death of King Duncan, physically by Macbeth, but mentally, by the women in his life.