through sharp contrast, a character foil enhances certain traits of a central character. Analyze how one or more secondary characters operate as foils and are employed to develop both character and theme in macbeth...
What this means/is after is about how one character exists in the play to show us more about the main character.
Your thesis theme could be: 'How does Shakespeare use the character of Lady Macbeth to enable us to understand the motivations of Macbeth better?'
You could approach this from a feminist perspective...does Lady MacBeth serve a character purpose independantly of Macbeth, or does she exist only to tell us about Macbeth? For instance half way through the play when she ceases to 'be useful' she disappears, then returns later having gone insane and commits suicide. So she exists to show us how Macbeth can be manipulated by his wife and that he loves her at the start of the play ('dearest chuck') - she is ambitious for him and could be seen as acting as 'Eve' to tempt him to destruction - as indeed so could the witches.
Examine their relationship and consider if it is possible to see her as a true independant character, or is she only a plot device to get Macbeth to act in certain fashions.
Could be interesting...hope this has been helpful.
No comments:
Post a Comment