The Image of the Femme Fatale in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Abstract

William Shakespeare's Macbeth is one of the most interesting yet one of the bloodiest among his plays. The interest in this play stems from the fact that its characters are among the most famous of Shakespeare's characters, due to their complexity and their equivocal nature. The complexity of the characters shows Shakespeare's mature art of characterization, which is different from his previous plays. In this play, Shakespeare presents women as capable of evil and destructive acts as men. He goes as far as suggesting that in certain instances women can be more vicious than men, and they might be the motivators of iniquitous acts. Thus, the aim of this paper is to present the image of the femme fatale which is incarnated in the character of Lady Macbeth, and the impact of her atrocious acts on the entire action of the play.