How women's strong feelings can lead to violence in 'Macbeth', 'Salome' and 'The laboratory' - Coursework Example

?Explore the ways the present how women's strong feelings can lead to violence in 'Macbeth', 'Salome' and 'The laboratory'. How is this used to interest the reader or audience? Murder has played a large role in literature throughout the ages. Human curiosity has led writers to include murder as a significant theme in quite a few works of literature. The existence of intrigue and the inherent instinct to kill lies inside all human beings. Literature provides an opportunity for human beings to explore their darker side without committing a socially unacceptable act. Most people feel like killing other people at some point in their lives but this is not a practical possibility. Literature allows these people to circumvent such physical desires by allowing them to imagine murder(s) and their unintended consequences for everyone involved. In addition, the reflections found in literature point to the wider society and its attitudes over murder. Murder committed or brought about by women has been a rarer part of literature when compared to murders committed by men. This paper will attempt to analyse writer’s presentation of women’s feelings that led to murder in three literary works namely “Macbeth”, “Salome” and “The laboratory” and how these acts interest the audience. These literary pieces show that the attitudes over murder have changed in literature in tandem with social changes over time. The writer’s methods of expressing murderous desire and its consequences have changed largely between these works. Literature is a reflection of contemporary social norms, values and mores. As one sifts through these works, the most noticeable thing is the change in attitude over murder. “Macbeth” is the oldest of these pieces of literature and shows the greatest remorse displayed by these literary pieces. Lady Macbeth tends to regret her role in murdering King Duncan as the play progresses. The fifth act’s first scene of Macbeth portrays Lady Macbeth as sleepwalking and condemning herself repeatedly. At one point Lady Macbeth remarks, “Out, damned spot!”1 while a little later she expresses her guilt and regret by saying, “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand”2. This implies moral regret that can be seen as being derived from social conditions of the time. Expecting women in Shakespearean England to be murderers was a taboo since women were seen as frail and weak creatures. Shakespeare might have used Lady Macbeth as the chief plotter to signify the unclean and perverse nature of women or to imply that women were just as capable of heinous acts. Considering that Lady Macbeth was a member of royalty, murder was still somehow acceptable since the English royal court was full of conspiracies led by some prominent women. In contrast to Lady Macbeth, Robert Browning’s protagonist in “The laboratory” is shown as more scheming and crafty. While Lady Macbeth used daggers in order to murder King Duncan, Browning’s protagonist is set to use especially prepared poison for this purpose3. Again this signifies a major shift in social systems that literature tends to reflect. Browning has chosen to use poison since the portrayed times (before the French Revolution) and the Ancien Regime signify great conspiracies and intrigue in terms of European history. The audience has been enticed through the use of paranoia and the ensuing tendency to commit murder. However, there is no clue in the poem if the murder actually takes place. Moreover, the intensity of the paranoia has been made visible by the poet by stating that the protagonist is ready to give all of her jewels to the poison maker: “Now, take all my jewels, gorge gold to your fill, ...”4 Moreover the poet continues to batter the protagonist with paranoia and apparent feelings of jealousy to indicate that murder is not highly acceptable. The protagonist is shown as developing greater paranoia as she acquires the poison since she plans to kill Elise as well as Pauline. The poet has done all of this to imply that the protagonist is half mad, with love and jealousy. This can be used to imply that murder was more or less unacceptable even in a royal court where scheming was part of daily routine. “Salome” is more recent compared to the other works and shows a total shift from previous attitudes on murder by women. The most noticeable thing in Salome is the lack of any remorse for murder by a woman who has a severed head by her pillow. The opening verses make it clear that the protagonist has committed murder and will commit murder: “I’d done it before (and doubtless I’ll do it again, sooner or later)”5 This reflects that the modern age sees brutality with greater ease than in previous times. The poet has been forced to issue a straight intention to murder repeatedly in order to gain the audience’s attention. This could be attributed to the fact that modern audiences are subject to greater violence through channels such as television, internet etc. which force the poet to throw down a provocative statement. Comparing “Salome” to the other works also reveals the use of gore imagery such as the severed head on the pillow, the beard with shades of red, the red sheets and finally the head on a “platter”. Neither “Macbeth” nor “The laboratory” has used such descriptions or imagery in order to rake in audiences. The closes that “Macbeth” comes to is descriptions of imagined blood on the hands of Lady Macbeth and other such hallucinations. It might be argued that Lady Macbeth uses strong language and ideas such as the idea to bash the brain of the baby that suckles her breasts. However, the language used by Lady Macbeth or the ideas carried by “Macbeth” are nowhere as grim as those in “Salome”. Comparatively, “The laboratory” is a more refined piece of work in terms of portraying gore images. Browning uses the colour of the poison to portray the grimness of the intended act but does not use any other means to portray the wickedness of the intended deed. “Macbeth” and “Salome” are both more visual and out spoken in terms of violent imagery though “Salome” is undeniably the more violent of the two. The motive for murder is differentiated between all works under consideration. Lady Macbeth is shown murdering Duncan in connivance with her husband in order to become queen since she cannot become king or acquire regal status without the help of a man. This fits well with Shakespearean times since women were rarely in positions of power in that age. On the other hand, Browning’s protagonist is out to murder her lover’s mistress because she dominates the protagonist more or less like a slave. The actions of Browning’s protagonist are directed to free herself and her lover from the wrath of Pauline, the wretched mistress. However, the protagonist does not realise that her lover is unfaithful more than Pauline is wicked. This reflects that women were treated as mere objects of desire in Browning’s projected time period since the protagonist’s lover has at least three women in his grips. Duffy’s poem changes these motives altogether – “Salome” depicts murder for no apparent reason. The poem depicts a woman murdering a man while confessing to multiple murders without providing a real reason except for indicating that “life is a bitch”6. This reflects on the state of disdain that the protagonist has for murdering other people which are more likely to be men. It could be argued that the modern rise of misandry could be Duffy’s motive in penning down such a poem. Overall, it can be seen that the writer’s have used various devices to lure in audiences ranging from mild suggestions to murder to explicit gore descriptions of murder. The changing traditions from one age to the other are apparent in all of the subject works. These changes are reflected strongly in terms of the perception of murder and their use by the writers. References Carol Ann Duffy, Selected Poems: Carol Ann Duffy (New York, Penguin Global, 2009) Robert Browning, The Poetical Works of Robert Browning (London, Forgotten Books, 2012) William Shakespeare, Macbeth (London, Simon and Brown, 2011) Read More