Date of Award
5-2015
Degree Type
Report
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
English
Committee Chair(s)
Phebe Jensen
Committee
Phebe Jensen
Committee
Christine Cooper-Rompato
Committee
Lynne S. McNeill
Abstract
Lady Macbeth, the bloodthirsty queen of Scotland, wife of the butcher king Macbeth, is one of the most memorable female villains of English literature. Though William Shakespeare takes much of the content of Macbeth from Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Lady Macbeth is almost entirely his own creation. He takes a one-sentence character from his source and expands and elevates her to the infamous rank of Macbeth’s “dearest partner in greatness,” from which position she acts as the driving force behind his horrific deeds through much of the play (I.v.11). Perhaps the most famous of Shakespeare’s additions to Lady Macbeth’s role is the sleepwalking scene, which serves as the climax of her theatrical power.
Recommended Citation
Schulthies, Michela, "Lady Macbeth and Early Modern Dreaming" (2015). All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023. 476.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/gradreports/476
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