How does Shakespeare and Duffy present disturbed women in Macbeth and The World’s wife
Throughout the play ‘Macbeth,’ by Shakespeare, and in the three poem: Salome, Medusa and Havisham, by Duffy, the Women are portrayed as disturbed characters. In the texts they women reason for being disturbed are similar as they are all mad due to negative thoughts and are link to men but at the same time there are different.
Shakespeare made his literary creation of Lady Macbeth disturbed from the moment she was introduce on the stage but as you on he loses her power and ends up falling into madness. “Unsex me here” which was a quote from Act 1 and shows how even in the beginning she wasn’t in the right state of mind. This is because this quote shows the reader that she wants to lose her innocence and gentleness of being a woman. Lady Macbeth does this as she wants to lose the conscience and not feel guilt when plotting and killing the King. Shakespeare uses Iambic pentameter to keep his plays in a rhythm of 5 pairs of syllables per line and is only uses for noble characters when they are feeling normal are in the right state of mind and aren’t worried at that point in time. In this quote though Lady Macbeth isn’t speaking in Iambic Pentameter which shows that Shakespeare want her to be known as disturbed. Shakespeare does stress the words “Unsex,” and “here,” to show how Lady Macbeth is a demanding character and also, how desperate as there is nothing else she can do unless she loses her conscience. Furthermore, by stressing “Here,” it shows how she wants it now and so she isn’t scared about the situation. Another reason why this shows so Lady Macbeth is disturbed is because she wants evil spirits to come inside her and change her for the worse but this also shows Lady Macbeths power as she is able to make evil spirts do her bidding. Shakespeare involved evil spirits in his play as it linked with the context and his main target which was King James who was a very supersites man and so would believe that the evil spirts existed.
This quote also links ‘Salome’ which is one of Duffs poems as Duffy also, portrays her character of Salome and mad but at the same time full of power. We know this as Duffy wrote “was his head on a platter.” The reason this shows Salome’s power as she was able to kill this man and show of his head like a prize and get away with it. At the same this gives us the full extent of how disturbed Salome really is due to the fact that the way it is written it seems that Salome doesn’t really care about what has happened and how Duffy wrote in the begging “I’d done it before (and doubtless I’ll do it again, sooner or later).” This shows the reader that Salome has gotten use to this type of stuff and how Salome accepts that this will happen and tells us how he has had many victims and she doesn’t care about either one of them which psychopathic. Both this lines unlike in Macbeth flow which is another reason why we know how Salome doesn’t care at all by what she will do or done. When Duffy write “his head on a platter” it links back to its content of the biblical story of Salome wanting her father’s head on a plate and is what has happened here.
Both these text contrast with the poem ‘Havisham’ as Duffy portrays her as weak and helpless throughout and even at the very start it shows she has no control over here self as Duffy writes “beloved sweetheart basted.” This shows the reader that Havisham has so little control that she doesn’t even know what to think whether she is still in love or if she is consumed by hatred. The juxtaposition of her feeling show this and tells the reader of why she has been disturbed which must have been by her past lover and how she wants to forget him and leave him but never will be able to. Duffy also made this three word sentence be at the very begging of her poem to drag the reader in as it confuse us of how someone can love a person but then call them a “bastard.” Since it can do that it