Essential Question #1 Part B

Lady Macbeth's role in Shakespeare’s Macbeth is purely progressive and nothing more. Her role as a determined woman who lusts after power and position simply adds to the climactic plot of Macbeth and demonstrates that Shakespeare has portrayed her as a woman of ahead of her time. The mere fact that Lady Macbeth plays an immoral character who sought after the few things that many people desire even until this day is irrelevant, as she was able to hold her own against the men of the time and coerce Macbeth into obeying her every whim. Characters such as Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello also play similar roles as a villain in the story, but at the same time they were sharp and cunning. The villainy is irrelevant in comparison to the ingenuity Lady Macbeth exhibits. To answer the question as to whether or not Shakespeare was progressive or misogynistic in his portrayal of Lady Macbeth, he was progressive, for Lady Macbeth’s clever and mischievous nature is what made this tragedy all the more epic.