Comparing Lady Macbeth and Curley’s Wife Essay

Of Mice and men, written in 1937 by John Steinbeck, and Macbeth, written in 1606 by William Shakespeare, both delineate women as linked to the downfall of male characters. both(prenominal) play and young were set and written at times where women did non exhaust galore(postnominal) rights. Macbeth was first performed in 1606 which was a patriarchal order and the Divine proper of Kings meant that bulk believed that kings were chosen by God to rule and so cleanup position a king, or regicide, was considered to be the greatest sin that could be perpetrate.I bequeath be looking at skirt Macbeth who has a dim control all oer her conserve. Of Mice and Men was written in the time of the keen Depression by this point in history, women had traveled to receive some rights such as voting, entirely they were the first to lose their jobs when the Depression came and m all had to go bad housewives once again. Curleys married wo homophile represents the frustration of women in this era. This essay will focus on the similarities and differences between the two characters and how they are represented theme structure, language and themes.The audience first meets brothel keeper Macbeth in Act 1 Scene 5. She is reading a letter from Macbeth explaining the events that just took flummox with the witches. This is followed by her soliloquy, so we hear her thoughts aloud. This indicates that chick Macbeth will have power over the events in the play, since she begins p jamting the exe carvinging of the king this display of power is rare for a woman in the 17th blow, which is further suggested by the fact that she would have been played by a man on a Shakespearean stage. madam Macbeth during the play is important, since she is already the married woman of a nobleman and later(prenominal) the king. After the reign of Queen Elizabeth, society was anxious about stringy women and would have been real anxious about noblewoman Macbeth since she begins to plot mu rder while reading the letter saying Yet do I fear thy / nature It is too full of the milk of human forgivingness to catch the nearest way. nearest way is a euphemism for murder. She shows brass instrument and is critical of her husband.Lady Macbeth and Curleys married woman both show relaxze off for their husbands. In Act 2 Scene 2, Lady Macbeth is manipulative towards her husband, as she complains to him for returning the daggers to the tantrum of the crime, by saying My hands are of your colour, but I dishonour / to wear a heart so clear, white is related to innocence or without sin. This relates to the context as during the Jacobean men are meant have stock certificatey hearts from all the citizenry they have killed and for a woman to call a mans heart white, and for her to be shamed by it he must be less manly than her. The relationship between Curley and Curleys married woman is seen without verify byout the development of the book.Curleys wife does not wish to b e under his masculine control Curleys wife says think I comparable to receive in that house alla time? The book of account stick means to stay attached by adhesion, this shows how she is un subject to be free or disobey her husbands in any way. It shows that she hates to be by herself, and shows Curleys possessiveness and jealousy towards the other characters on the bedspread about her reduces the things in which she is able to do. In the 1930s woman were often kept at infrastructure by their husbands as jobs were becoming much than difficult to outsmart and keep, as women just recently received the right to work in more(prenominal) masculine jobs and so this get them the least amount of rights to jobs when jobs became scarce.Lady Macbeth emotions and Macbeth material status are linked throughout the play. In Act 1 we see Macbeth being promoted to thane at the polish off of his battle, this is the unhorseing of his kingdom, fortress and prison. Lady Macbeth on reading t he letter sent for Macbeth increases in wickedness and this is the start of her kingdom, fortress and prison but with Lady Macbeth it is to safeguard or toss her emotions or guilt.This doesnt last long for the queen as her guard is down and her emotions escape her during her sleepwalking scene, as she says out, damned spot, a spot can be referred to a rounded mark trade name made by a foreign matter, as mud, blood, paint, ink, etc. She is not referring to a physical spot but the leak of her emotions, the blood dye spot of King Duncan, this is besides shoes Lady Macbeths more famine side which the audience expected of a female in the Jacobean patriarchal society. Macbeths fortress comes crumbling before him at the end of Scene 5 ending with his final stage, for the King to die is a the right way shock during the era where the divine right of kings meant the biggest sin that could be committed as the king is thought to be chosen by God. Curley and his wife on the other hand ar e quite the opposite.Curleys wifes decisions affect the stability of Curley position on the ranch. The Curley we met at the start is portrayed as the strongest character on the farm, he is likewise the ranch owners son and is the only one with a cognize wife. All these factors make-up the towers that hold at the top of the pyramid. When Lennie breaks his hand he already becomes unstable and so starts being more strict with his wife such as making her stay at home. With his wife hunch going around the ranch with near see-through tops and parched up Barbie face, which for a woman in the early twentieth deoxycytidine monophosphate his unrealistic as they are considered to be owned by their husbands. When she dies this is a very big deal for Curley as with only one pillar barely holding him up his pyramid is toppling down. His anger is shown at the very end of the play when Curley throws a tantrum says That big son of a bitch done it. I know he done it.Both females characters fores hadow important event in the texts. Foreshadowing is seen straight outdoor(a) when we meet Lady Macbeth when she speaks her soliloquy. During this soliloquy Lady Macbeth rants about her husband, when she mentions Make midst my blood, to thickened blood is also known as blood clot, Blood clot is known for being very painful, and so for her to involve for her blood to clot, she must . Woman in the 17th century were considered to be non-violent. Later in Act 5 Scene 1 Lady Macbeth certifies her death as she opened herself unconsciously, in front of the doctor and nurse, and says on that points a knocking at the door. Door is any gateway marking an entrance or exit from one place or state to another, in this scene the door relates to the doors of hell, as Lady Macbeth is feeling the weight of her sins on top of her.This foreshadowing is fulfilled when Lady Macbeth is said to of killed herself off-stage. In Of Mice and Men foreshadowing is seen in chapter 2 when Curleys wife introduc ed physically to the reader. The text describes her as She had full, rouge lips Her fingernails were red like sausages red mules,.. of red ostrich feathers. Red is of the colour of fresh blood, and so her appearance shows her death in the near future due to her despair to catch the attention of everyone on the farm. This is because many people felt ineffectual and frustrated during the Great Depression.In the entrance to the new characters, George and Lennie, the scene is described Both men glanced up, for the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off. The sunshine is related to the sunlight of heaven, this again is predicting her death in the near future. In chapter 5 the tonic mentions A pigeon flew in through the open hay door and circled and flew out again, the pigeon in french is a young dove which can be related to the heaven, ultimately indicating her death a second before we her doll like corpses. Her death is like her introduction as they both having similar with her red theme.rouged cheeks and her reddened lips this proves that the foreshadowing at the start is related to her death at the end of the book. Curleys wife shows control over winds in Of Mice and Men yet women having such low respect during the Great Depression.The play is integrated so that the immenseness of Lady Macbeth decreases during the play while Curleys wifes importance increases during the novel. Lady Macbeth is ashamed of her husband at the start of the play as Macbeth shows so much weakness towards her. This disappointment of hers is shown greatly during the killing of King Duncan in Act 2 Scene 2. This also shows her importance, as she complains to Macbeth by announcing My hand are of your colour, but I shame / to wear a heart so white, shame is a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the brain of wrong or foolish behaviour. In context this is odd as during the Jacobean era women were expected to obey their husbands, but instead she is more masculi ne that her own husband. In Act 5 Scene 5, Seyton emotionlessly says The queen, my lord, is drained but we do not go out the death on-stage, this is to show that Lady Macbeth has lost her importance since the start of the play.On the other hand Curleys wife is less important at the start of the novel as we hear her in a conversation between Candy and George, as Candy describes Curleys wife as a tart. The word is an offensive consideration for a female prostitute showing that what she does is not what is wanted from a 1930s wife as it was sexist society and men were still dominant. At the end of the book Curleys wife is killed but not off-stage thus showing an increase in her importance since the start, this is probably because she is direct cause of Lennies death compared to Lady Macbeth. Her increase in importance links to the fact that women started getting a lot of rights such as having the right to vote, as during the war women took over their husbands jobs and when the husba nds returned some realized that women could do more than be housewives.We witness Curleys wife first performance of power over a male character in chapter 4, at Crookss harness populate when she turns on him and says Listen, Nigger. The word Nigger is a contemptuous term used to refer to a member of any dark-skinned people. By using this term to a fateful person shows that Curleys wife has a little amount of power in this patriarchal also by Crookss after reaction of curling into a glob this also shows her power a only the week lower themselves to a higher power.During the 1930s a racial group called the Klu Klux Klan had power they disrespected black people and sometimes went as far as to kill them. In the same conversation with Crookss Curleys wife says I could get you strung upon a tree so easy it aint even funny. Strung upon a tree this is called lynch lynching was first started in America by in the 18th century and was mostly stopped by 1920. Black people who went against wh ite people in the 1930 still got hanged on a tree, this term shows the power in which Curleys wife holds over black people, as well as mentioning this to a black person is very offensive as over thirty thousand negros died and shows the reason why Crooks reduced himself to nothing.Both Lady Macbeth and Curleys wife are the cause of the sorrow around them leading to both Lennie and Macbeths death. Lady Macbeth finally shows the sexist weakness of women during the Jacobean era by allowing for her emotions to leak out and dies off-stage showing her unimportance. Curleys wife is throughout the novel shown as slutish and attention seeking and is finally killed by a man as she does not have the strength to withstand Lennie, showing her feminist side. Both authors portray their leads as weak and vulnerable even if they interpret to hide it.