Lady Macbeth is considered nearly sinister in comparison with her husband, Macbeth, a perception that is supported by such assertions as "How tender tis to love the babe that milks me;/ I would, while it was smiling in my face/ Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums/ and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you/ have to do this" from the lips of her character.
In contrast to Lady Macbeth's hard insistence that Macbeth pursue whatever means necessary to achieve power is Macbeth's self-doubting statement of "each corporal agent to this terrible feat./ Away and mock the time with fairest show. False face must hide what the false heart doth know" as he is considering the grave deed he and Lady Macbeth have connived to commit, indicating his awareness of the negative consequences he is likely suffer, even if unspecific.
Just as the actions of characters illustrate motives better than any soliloquy, so do the actions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth sustain the words that they speak. In keeping with the boldness of her character, it is Lady Macbeth who encourages the disregard of civil protocol in the treatment of her guests, and it is she that drugs those guests. Further, had Duncan not so resembled Lady Macbeth's father, she, of her own confession would have performed the assassination herself. In contrast to these actions are those of Macbeth who cannot utter the word "Amen" to close in a prayer, nor is he able to plant the daggers he carried away from the murder he committed once he had left the room of his victims. Indeed, it is Lady Macbeth who plants the daggers after chastising Macbeth with "Infirm of purpose!/ Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead/ are but as pictures." (2.2, 58-60)
Critics, such as Sarah Siddon, have expressed pardon of Lady Macbeth's words and behavior by emphasizing that it is ambition that drives Lady Macbeth. Siddons believes Lady Macbeth's mention of a nursing child "in the midst of her dreadful language, persuades one unequivocally that she has really felt maternal yearning of a mother towards her babe." (Thompson; Roberts, p. 56) Siddons further points out that "it is only in soliloquy that she (Lady Macbeth) invokes the powers of hell to unsex her."
The critic M. Leigh-Noel, in her study of Lady Macbeth, offers further defense by considering Lady Macbeth's circumstance of socio-economic position and history, as well as on her own assertion that lady Macbeth had been a mother (Thompson; Roberts, p. 174). Noel suggests that, in the age that "Macbeth" was written "human life was by no means as sacred as it is now; and that violence was the common resort of both mean and noble in their efforts to gain the desires of their souls." Noel places emphasis on Lady Macbeth being the "solitary inmate" of Macbeth's castle, believing she was "cheered only by occasional and fitful visits from her husband -" Noel further suggests that Lady Macbeth had to "live only on the remembrance of the bittersweet joy of maternity, to wake up and miss the magnetic pressure of infant fingers " consequently causing Lady Macbeth to cling "more tenaciously to her husband." (Thompson; Roberts, p. 174). Combined, Noel believes, these circumstances support the theory that Lady Macbeth paid "a terrible price... to gratify her husband's ambition." That while " Macbeth had the stronger wishes, she (Lady Macbeth) had the stronger will" (Thompson; Roberts, p. 175) and since it is will that prevails over wishes, Lady Macbeth's share of the burden in her conspiracy with her husband outweighed that of Macbeth's.
Noel's arguments validly challenges many common perceptions of Lady Macbeth and rightfully points to isolation and suffering as likely contributors to Lady Macbeth's loss of mental capacity. But it is the shocking threat Lady Macbeth made regarding dashing the brains of her nursing child that the critic France Anne Kemble believes is "no mere figure of speech" continues to cast Lady Macbeth as a character who is much worse that her male counterpart.
The roles of Hermione and Leontes in "The Winter's Tale" present a contrast to that of the Macbeths and illustrate a model wherein the woman's character is perceivably superior to that of the male. During the first acts, Hermione's relatively calm self-assurance becomes quickly more obvious despite the escalation of Leontes' jealous emotions, of which Hermione, whose intent was to be as gracious hostess to Polixenes, was unaware of instigating. And while it was Leontes who first requested Hermione to speak in persuasive tone and manner to Polixenes, and Leontes who encouraged Hermione to continue, and despite Hermione's reassurance of her love for Leontes ["I love thee not a jar o' th' clock behind/ What a lady she her lord" (1.2, 42-43)], it is Hermione's steadfastness of belief that Leonte's will come to his senses that becomes most obvious. While the situation is unbelievable to Hermione, she yet blames it on "some ill planet" and tells herself to be patient. Further, her lamentation over having "That honorable grief lodged here which here burns/ worse than tears drown" (2.1, 111-113) belies the capacity for her depth of emotion while she yet resists tears when Leontes orders her imprisonment. Hermoine's parting words "This action I go on/ is for my better grace. Adieu, my lord./ I never wished to see you sorry; now/ I trust I shall (2.1, 122-125) are memorable not only because they reveal the level of acceptance and humility possessed by Hermione in the face of Leonte's relative cruelty, but also for the poignant prediction she asserts that further reveals confidence in her own goodness.
Though the character of Hermione "is open to criticism on one point that when she secludes herself from the world for sixteen years, during which time she is mourned as dead by her repentant husband, and is not won to relent from her resolve by his sorrow, his remorse, his constancy to her memory; such conduct... is unfeeling as it is inconceivable in a virtuous and tender woman. (Thompson; Roberts p. 76) she is of the exactly the kind of female character who could and would have acted in this manner, for in such a mind as hers, the sense of a cruel injury, inflicted by one she had loved and trusted, without awakening any violent anger or any desire of vengeance, would sink deep... in a mind like Hermione's, where the strength of feeling is founded in the power of thought, there are but to influences which predominate over will, - time and religion... to study forgiveness and wait the fulfillment of the oracle which had promised the termination of her sorrows. Thus a premature reconciliation would have been painfully inconsistent with the character (Thompson; Roberts, p.76-77) further suggesting Hermione's comparatively superior moral position as compared with her husband, Leontes.
These two examples clearly support the idea that, in Shakespeare's plays anyway, women are often portrayed as much better or much worse than men, as Bruyere quote suggests. Perhaps it comes from the male tenancy to project characteristics onto women, or perhaps it is only to add drama. Or perhaps, as Laura Stubbs has suggested, it is a manifestation of Shakespeare's playwriting skills, for "If you study the plots of the plays, you must notice that the catastrophe is invariably caused by the fault or folly of a man; the redemption, if there be any, by the wisdom or virtue of a woman. (Shakespeare) represents (women) as infallibly faithful and wise counselors, strong always to sanctify even when they cannot save... (Thompson; Roberts, p. 247) which gives the impression that though interaction between opposite genders with opposing characteristics accelerates plot and adds drama, Shakespeare's tenancy is to do so in favor of women, for even when they are portrayed as "worse" than men, as in the case with Lady Macbeth, they are still stronger and able to carry greater burdens with greater success for longer periods of time than the male characters found in these plays.
REFERENCES:
BEVINGTON, David (Ed.). The Necessary Shakespeare. 2. ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005.
GRADY, Hugh (Ed.) Shakespeare and Modernity. New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2000.
THOMPSON, Ann; SASHA, Roberts (Eds.). Women reading Shakespeare, 1660-1900. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997.
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