LADY MACBETH
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it: what thou wouldst highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou’ldst have, great Glamis,
That which cries ‘Thus thou must do, if thou have it;
And that which rather thou dost fear to do
Than wishest should be undone.’ Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
To have thee crown’d withal.
Macbeth,William Shakespeare, Act1.Scene3 (15-28)
In this scene Lady Macbeth begins to think of a plot to get her husband to see his true ambition and rightful place in life and by any means necessary. She realizes he is going to have to degrade him in order for him to get to a crueler nature he has never know. She believes he is too soft and will need a push in order to succeed. Here is another example about how gender roles were reversed where the women was the ambitious one while the man would rather sit back and see what s going to happen.
