„The tragedy of Macbeth“, a theatre originally written by William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) and newly arranged by Joel Cole, deals with several topics like ruthlessness, jealousy, revenge or even the role of woman.

In the following analysis I want to give a brief characterisation of the character “Lady Macbeth”, the wife of the future King of Scotland “Macbeth”, where I am trying to explain her motivations, her personality and her general role in the movie.

To begin with, woman’s in the 16. Century had an ideality they had to fit in where religion played an important role and even their “tasks” were set based on their social status. The ideal woman of the century were supposed to be subordinate under her husband and therefore they are not equal. A “perfect” wife needs to support her husband, respect him and needs to love him like a holy being. His welfare is the most important than her own.

Based on this knowledge, some of the aspects might be true for lady Macbeth, some might be wrong.

To start with, lady Macbeth seems to behave like she wants to be less feminine but more masculine as she reads the letter of her husband which says that he will be the future king. She fears that her husband could be to weak to do what needs to be done (killing the old king), thus she supports her husband to do so, like the ideal picture of a woman draws. She is willing to do whatever it takes to make him the future king, no matter what she has to sacrifice. In the same scene she is even already planing to kill the old king and reveals her ruthless character, even if she is afraid.

In a nutshell lady Macbeth forces and encourages her man to proceed the murderer.