LADY MACBETH
O, never
Shall sun that morrow see!
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men
May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower,
But be the serpent under’t. He that’s coming
Must be provided for: and you shall put
This night’s great business into my dispatch;
Which shall to all our nights and days to come
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
Macbeth,William Shakespeare, Act1.Scene5 (60-9)
We see a reverse in gender roles as Lady Macbeth becomes the ambitious one and makes up the plot about killing King Duncan. She wants to see her man rise up as king, but also see herself rise up on the social pole. The wife of Bath’s also has this kind of “do anything to get ahead” attitude when it comes to her husbands. She manipulates her husbands in ways she knew she would always end up with the upper hand.
