Concerning your question on Shakespeare's
Macbeth, I can't write the perfect thesis statement for you,
without knowing what you've turned up with your research, what angle you want to take,
etc. And I really don't want to presume to write your thesis for
you.
What I can do is give you some ideas and some
possible thesis statements, then turn the assignment back over to
you.
Gender roles and power are reversed and in flux, or
constantly changing, in the play.
The witches end up
wheeling a great deal of power, and they are androgynous. Lady Macbeth wants power, but
as a female, can't have it. She pleads with the spirits to make her more like a man,
but isn't--she can't kill Duncan because he reminds her of her father. Macbeth wants
power, but behaves more like a stereotypical female when first attempting to get it: he
demonstrates pity and mercy by not wanting to assassinate Duncan, because the king has
been a humble and fair ruler.
Lady Macduff, too, is trapped
in a gender role, left unprotected by a husband that puts the country's welfare above
his family's, neglecting even to take her with him or at least move her to a safe
place.
Thus, much concerning gender roles and power is
present in the play. Your job is to determine exactly what approach you want to take.
The possibilities are numerous. Of course, you want to relate gender and power to how
the drama works as a whole. One way to help ensure you do this is to connect your
primary subject with a literary device or a type of figurative
language.
Here are some
possibilities:
- Images of the unnatural reflect
the state of gender roles and power in
Macbeth. - The theme of "Fair is foul
and foul is fair" reflects (or is reflected by) gender roles and power in
Macbeth. - As androgynous creatures,
the witches wield power that reflects both male and female gender
roles.
Those are just some examples of the
kinds of things you could deal with in your essay.
No comments:
Post a Comment