“Virginitie, Mariage And Widowhood” (Mainer). Stage One

â€Å"Virginitie, Mariage and Widowhood† (MAINER). Stage one: A girl child is controlled by her father and other male figures around her. She grows up to be a young woman, a virgin, a prospective bride. Stage two: Marriage— decided again by powerful men around her. She has no freedom to choose her soul partner. No precedence for love or compatibility. This is the stage the submissive woman spends most of her life; her duty is to fulfill her dominant husband’s every wish and demand. She is entrusted to take care of the household, and bear and raise children. When her husband meets his end, she is now a widow and is looked down by society. At this juncture of her life again, she is sub-ordinate to men in her family circle. This was the typical†¦show more content†¦She is not the typical, submissive, uneducated woman of her era. Lady Macbeth is power hungry and vindictive, unlike the traditional Jacobean women. After hearing of the witches’ prophecy , Lady Macbeth’s hunger for power grows limitless. She goes as far as committing regicide. The disruption of gender roles is especially apparent when Lady Macbeth calls upon the spirits to â€Å"unsex me here/ And fill me, from the crown to the toe, topful/ Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood,/ Stop up the access and passage to remorse† (Shakespeare I.v.40-43). Here, Lady Macbeth implies that women are not normally cruel, while men are. When she notices that her husband is hesitant to murder Duncan, she continually taunts him until he eventually commits the deed. Witches and their prophecy are not the reason for her cruelty but they act just as a catalyst, a trigger. But it was the brutality and cruelty inherent in her nature that enables her to orchestrate the murder. Shakespeare shows the reader that contrary to the popular belief, a lady is not naturally born with certain set traits; that being a woman does not mean being kind or submissive. Lady Macbeth is port rayed as a very ambitious woman who has the desire to not be a woman. Again, this is very atypical of Jacobean women. A woman with power was a rarity in the Jacobean era. History shows an occasion when a woman was entrusted with power to rule her kingdom. After the death of her