Macbeth and the Spanish Tragedy Viewed Through Female Eyes

Women and power are often viewed as anathema in the conventional view of Jacobean drama, although ironically the dramatic form reached its height during the reign of Elizabeth. Lady Macbeth is often cited as proof positive that women in tragedy are seen as sources of negative, rather than positive power when they exercise statesmanship and personal choice. But Shakespeare's Lady and also the lesser known Bel-Imperia of Thomas Kyd's earlier revenge play both function not so much as negative sources of power, but as the moral reflections of the men in their lives and the world in which they live, both for good and for ill.

According to the common conception of Lady Macbeth, the wife of the Thane of Cawdor is an evil, malicious shrew, full of gall rather than the "milk of human kindness." (1.1.15) However, although Lady Macbeth...
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