Womens Role in Macbeth and Antigone
Throughout many pays and novels, women have had important roles of helping form the main characters, in the way they think, move or change the story. Women have always been subordinate to men all through history, but in plays, novels, short stories, etc, they have been given large enforcing roles, showing the power within women. William Shakespeare and Sophocles use guilt, pride, and influence to demonstrate the importance of the women’s role to support the main characters in both the plays of Macbeth and Antigone.
In Macbeth and Antigone the authors created guilt for the women to use against the main characters for their advantage. Macbeth exploits Lady Macbeth to balance Macbeth in the play; many say that Lady Macbeth put guilt on Macbeth into killing for the throne; others disagree and believe that he has his own will power, but it is not as strong as Lady Macbeth. (Shakespeare 50) “My hands are of your color, but I shame to wear a heart so white.” This is stating that she helped with the murder and yet she feels no guilt, so why should he. Telling Macbeth that guilt is not something you should feel when you gain power. (Shakespeare 148) “Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!” Lady Macbeth is breaking down from guilt; she is having hallucinations from the night of the murder and only wished to take back what has happened.
Antigone utilizes the character Antigone to show loyalty to her family through guilt in the play. In the play, Antigone is a strong woman who stands for what she believes in and is Creon’s Sons fiancée , and uses guilt to have Creon, the king who ordered that no one can bury Polyneices, understand that it is wrong for anyone to be left un buried, especially Antigone’s brother. (Sophocles 783) “… but if I had left my brother lying in death unburied, I should have suffered.” This passage from Antigone is the explanation for her outbreak from Creon’s law. Sophocles
In Macbeth and Antigone the authors created guilt for the women to use against the main characters for their advantage. Macbeth exploits Lady Macbeth to balance Macbeth in the play; many say that Lady Macbeth put guilt on Macbeth into killing for the throne; others disagree and believe that he has his own will power, but it is not as strong as Lady Macbeth. (Shakespeare 50) “My hands are of your color, but I shame to wear a heart so white.” This is stating that she helped with the murder and yet she feels no guilt, so why should he. Telling Macbeth that guilt is not something you should feel when you gain power. (Shakespeare 148) “Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!” Lady Macbeth is breaking down from guilt; she is having hallucinations from the night of the murder and only wished to take back what has happened.
Antigone utilizes the character Antigone to show loyalty to her family through guilt in the play. In the play, Antigone is a strong woman who stands for what she believes in and is Creon’s Sons fiancée , and uses guilt to have Creon, the king who ordered that no one can bury Polyneices, understand that it is wrong for anyone to be left un buried, especially Antigone’s brother. (Sophocles 783) “… but if I had left my brother lying in death unburied, I should have suffered.” This passage from Antigone is the explanation for her outbreak from Creon’s law. Sophocles
Cited: Shakespeare, William. Macbeth; In the Original and Modern English; A Parallel Text Edition. Ed. Daniel Leary. Logan, Iowa: The Perfection Form Company, 1983. Print. Sophocles. “Antigone.” The Oedipus Cycle. Trans. Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitsgerald. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1977. Print.