how does shakespeare present lady macbeth as a dangerous character?

intro

* lady macbeth is a construct to show effects of power in the hands of women
* shakespeare also displays how power in the hands of dangerous women is destructive as she eventually succumbs to remorse and guilt

presented as dangerous through witches

LM is shown to be a dangerous character through shakespeare presnetation of her as alike to the witches, and her being gender ambiguous

“unsex me here”

“come you spirits” - imperative alludes to witches

her speech is reminiscent of the witches “Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor”

similarly, she speaks of wanted to “dash the brains out” of the child “smiling in her face” - alike to the witches using finger of “murdered baby”

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LINK TO CONTEXT OF WOMENS ROLE + SUPERNATURAL + KING JAMES

the link and theme of witchcraft could depict how women were rejecting the patriarchy and kingship that shunned women (shakespeare may be symbolising that women were angry and wanted revenge and power)

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in final scene shes described as a “fiend like queen” - links to the devil

cruelty and violence

“take my milk for gall” - contrasts the expectation of a jacobean women - rejects idea of being maternal + loving

contrasts with her previous soliloquy “too full of the milk of human kindness” - wants to rid both macbeth of his ‘unnatural’ kindness, the rigid gender expectations are embedded within her conscience.

attempts to reverse gender roles

similarly when macbeth reacts to the ghost, LM mocks him with exclamatives “o proper stuff”, “shame itself” - abstract noun “shame” reveals her disgust at his perceived weakness

motif of darkness

SP shows LM disguising her power with “thick night”, “smoke of hell”, “blanket of the dark” - displays how shes been corrupted by power

would have been shocking for a christian jacobean audience to hear a women using hellish imagery and wanting to stop “heaven” and any light from being able to “peep” through the clouds

structurally

use of monosyllabic exclamative sentences are a departure from lengthy soliloquies using iambic pentameter “out damn spot, out i say”

symbolise her lack of power as a women in jacobean era

conversely

she isnt that dangerous as she eventually succumbs to remorse and guilt - sleepwalking and blood/guilt metaphor