How are women presented in ‘Of Mice and Men’ and ‘Macbeth’?
Discrimination against women has been widespread throughout all periods of time. They have been viewed as sex objects and property of their husbands. Two notable examples of women described above, are Lady Macbeth from William Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ and Curley’s Wife from John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’. They are prime examples of this because firstly, their names are not revealed throughout both texts but they were polar opposites of the average women in both of their times.
In the Jacobean era, when ‘Macbeth’ was written, most women were portrayed as care givers and loving mothers, were religious and followed their husband’s orders. On the other hand, Lady Macbeth is vicious, …show more content…
Again, Steinbeck uses pathetic fallacy as he states that ‘The sun streaks were high on the wall by now’. This could be seen to symbolise a stairway to heaven for Curley’s wife as it could be argued that this is the first and only time the reader feels sympathetic towards her.
Some may argue that Curley’s wife is a badly constructed character by Steinbeck as the primary assumptions we make about her are from other men on the ranch ( she is referred to as ‘jailbait’ and a ‘tart’). This shows that Steinbeck was focusing on the presentation of women overall rather than focusing specifically on Curley’s Wife. All the women presented in the story are either motherly figures (such as ‘Lennie’s Aunt’) or sexually promiscuous figures such as ‘Curley’s Wife’ or the women in the brothel. Steinbeck could also be showing these stereotypical figures to inform men to treat women as their …show more content…
She also states that Macbeth is ‘art without ambition, but without the illness should attend it, which is basically her saying that without ambition, Macbeth will get nowhere in life. She also states ‘unsex me here’ which we can interpret as her saying that she wish that she could be rid of all her feminine traits so that she could have the ability to kill King Duncan. Her appearance is not prominent throughout the story as much as Curley’s wife as Shakespeare focuses more on her traits.
Lady Macbeth’s persuasive tongue is also made prominent when she requested Macbeth to kill the king. A prime example of this is when she questions his masculinity saying ‘When you durs’t do it, you were a man’ and comparing his change of heart to killing a baby as she stated that Macbeth “dashed the brains out of the” metaphorical baby. She later states that ‘Your hand, your tongue, looks like th’ innocent flower but be the serpent under’t’ which clearly connotes that he should act nice on the outside, but have evil intentions as the word ‘serpent’ is usually associated to evil and
Discrimination against women has been widespread throughout all periods of time. They have been viewed as sex objects and property of their husbands. Two notable examples of women described above, are Lady Macbeth from William Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ and Curley’s Wife from John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’. They are prime examples of this because firstly, their names are not revealed throughout both texts but they were polar opposites of the average women in both of their times.
In the Jacobean era, when ‘Macbeth’ was written, most women were portrayed as care givers and loving mothers, were religious and followed their husband’s orders. On the other hand, Lady Macbeth is vicious, …show more content…
Again, Steinbeck uses pathetic fallacy as he states that ‘The sun streaks were high on the wall by now’. This could be seen to symbolise a stairway to heaven for Curley’s wife as it could be argued that this is the first and only time the reader feels sympathetic towards her.
Some may argue that Curley’s wife is a badly constructed character by Steinbeck as the primary assumptions we make about her are from other men on the ranch ( she is referred to as ‘jailbait’ and a ‘tart’). This shows that Steinbeck was focusing on the presentation of women overall rather than focusing specifically on Curley’s Wife. All the women presented in the story are either motherly figures (such as ‘Lennie’s Aunt’) or sexually promiscuous figures such as ‘Curley’s Wife’ or the women in the brothel. Steinbeck could also be showing these stereotypical figures to inform men to treat women as their …show more content…
She also states that Macbeth is ‘art without ambition, but without the illness should attend it, which is basically her saying that without ambition, Macbeth will get nowhere in life. She also states ‘unsex me here’ which we can interpret as her saying that she wish that she could be rid of all her feminine traits so that she could have the ability to kill King Duncan. Her appearance is not prominent throughout the story as much as Curley’s wife as Shakespeare focuses more on her traits.
Lady Macbeth’s persuasive tongue is also made prominent when she requested Macbeth to kill the king. A prime example of this is when she questions his masculinity saying ‘When you durs’t do it, you were a man’ and comparing his change of heart to killing a baby as she stated that Macbeth “dashed the brains out of the” metaphorical baby. She later states that ‘Your hand, your tongue, looks like th’ innocent flower but be the serpent under’t’ which clearly connotes that he should act nice on the outside, but have evil intentions as the word ‘serpent’ is usually associated to evil and