The theme of destructive love within a relationship that is seen in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and Bronte’s Wuthering Heights are presented through sexism, jealousy and betrayal. A lot of women are being used for their bodies and mind. Sexism plays a role within a relationship, in which women get hurt. Jealousy can be seen in both men and women, because each one can get jealous by almost anything. If betrayal is brought into a relationship, then the whole relationship is destined to be over. No one likes a man or a woman who has betrayed someone in the past.
Women want sovereignty, control, and power within a relationship. Lady Macbeth took complete control over Macbeth. Macbeth wants to become king, but at the same time Lady Macbeth wants to take control of the relationship and Macbeth’s power. In the play, Macbeth, every woman except for Lady Macbeth, does not want any power. Lady Macduff is known as a FOIL, a character that contrasts another character, to Lady Macbeth because of their desires for power. While Lady Macbeth wants complete control of her relationship, Lady Macduff only wants to be taken care of. … Lady Macbeth relies more on her wifely position and femininity to establish her power” (Thomas 83). This implies that Lady Macbeth wanted the control so bad that she belittled her own husband to get what she wanted through her femininity. In Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, women would only abuse the men and at the same time did not care for their actions. Isabella forces men to do what she wants until she is introduced to Heathcliff. Isabella has a lot of problems in life like her brother being very controlling and having a controlling husband.
Her husband did not care for her until they got married and so she was held in the household. “Bronte has given Isabella Lockwood’s words, or vise-versa, implying similar reactions and characteristic defenses” (Galef 245). Isabella is a very defensive person, such as when Heathcliff was keeping her in the house but she was lucky and eventually made her escape. Men that have to deal with getting control, in any position, is hard for them. No man wants a woman to have control over the relationship, and that’s when the men start to get jealous.
Macbeth wants control but since Lady Macbeth is selfish and sees Macbeth with any power, she takes control over Macbeth. Control in a relationship is something that can lead to things such as abuse, both physically and mentally, as well as the relationship ending. No one in a relationship should have more control over their partner, but this idea is forgotten in Macbeth. An example of when this idea was forgotten is when Lady Macbeth had more authority over a person who goes crazy without control in their relationship, such as Macbeth. “Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? (Shakespeare 5, 1, 30-34). This refers to the fact that Macbeth went so crazy under his wife’s power that he did things he would never have done without Lady Macbeth being controlling In Wuthering Heights Hindley Earnshaw is known for being very controlling. Hindley abuses Heathcliff, an orphan, by making him work in the fields and not letting him go to college. Hindley turns into an alcoholic after his wife, Frances, dies. Hindley is also controlling since he thinks he’s better than everyone else, by taking what he wants and abusing everyone in the house. “Hindley does not often free us from his accursed presence” (Bronte 69).
This quote is showing how controlling Hindley was to others. Wuthering Heights has more people who were controlling but were not really important. The ladies in this story were not bad as the men, and they were very polite but not loyal. Women have ambitious goals to have the power of succeeding. Lady Macbeth wanted whatever Macbeth wanted, such as his power. No woman had ambition for Macbeth or his power, like Lady Macbeth did. Lady Macduff is the only woman who you cannot tell if she is ambitious or not. She cares a lot about her husband, but does not have any goals or want to succeed in anything other than being a good mother and wife.
Lady Macbeth succeeds in her ambitious by helping Macbeth with the work of killing Duncan. “Lady Macbeth thus falls into stereotypical female power roles as well” (Thomas 89). Thus, even though Lady Macbeth and the other women have different objectives, Lady Macbeth is still a stereotypical female. Catherine is extremely ambitious, because she has plenty of goals she has to do within the story. She runs off and gets married, but her plans don’t go right, because she didn’t marry the man she wanted. Her husband is very controlling and has no ambition, he only cares about himself.
Catherine takes her time when going toward her goals in life. Women nowadays have ambition and are selfish. “Keep out of the yard though the dogs are chained” (Bronte 28). This quote relates by Catherine getting into everyone’s business when she should be worrying about herself. Women are not the only ones that have ambition, but men have it as well. Ambition has a huge part in the play of Macbeth. Macbeth wants to kill Duncan and Banquo, so he sets that as his goal and completes it. In Macbeth every man wants ambition, but not every man likes to set goals for their ambitions, so they fulfill their desires without a plan in mind.
Macbeth becomes devoted to becoming king after he was told his future by the witches. Life for him was already hard enough, because he had a wife that was going crazy. Trying to become king at the same time would increase issues and stress on Macbeth. “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red” (Shakespeare 2, 2, 58-61). This quote comes from Macbeth, at which Macbeth had committed the murders and shows that he was not really sorry for killing Duncan and Banquo.
Joseph and Hindley Earnshaw have no ambition. Men in this story barely have any of it except Lockwood. He comes to Wuthering Heights for help and then leaves, but he actually becomes a new man. Ever since people’s death no one has done anything, and no goal in life has been succeeded. Ambition is nothing in Wuthering Heights for example, when Hindley’s wife died he went crazy as well as go into a depression state of mind. The loss of someone special to a person is heartbreaking and it loses their ability to be ambitious or set a goal to do something, and that is exactly what happened to Hindley.
No god will have the satisfaction that I shall. ” (Bronte 61). This quote means god has nothing on his satisfaction he will do what he needs to do to get over the death of his wife. In every relationship there should be some type of control. Macbeth ruined the relationship between the two when he got the power, but technically drove his own wife to madness. Macbeth would constantly feel more powerful and obtain more control of his situation, and that is what drove Lady Macbeth crazy. “I’m afraid they have awaked, and ’tis not done. Th’ attempt and not the deed, Confounds us” (Shakespeare 2, 2, 10-11).
The quote is suggesting that Lady Macbeth took control over Macbeth into killing Duncan. The balance of power in a relationship could cause destruction due to the negative things in life. A relationship cannot stay alive if there is a lot of problems. “They are good children, no doubt, and don’t deserve the treatment you receive for your bad conduct” (Bronte 47). This quote from Wuthering Heights helps describe what children do in a relationship. A child does help with the balance of power by making the relationship equal. A woman and a man needs to be in control together and not separate for the children’s sake.
The theme of destructive love within a relationship that is seen in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and Bronte’s Wuthering Heights are presented through sexism, jealousy and betrayal. Men and women should have equal control of a relationship. For example, Lady Macbeth took control over Macbeth to get power and become more dominant, ultimately destroying the relationship. Macbeth and Wuthering Heights shows the devastation of destructive love due to sexism, jealousy, and betrayal. In the play Macbeth, betrayal played a huge role in the relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth.
Lady Macbeth became very controlling and was never loyal to her husband. Catherine, from the story Wuthering Heights, was very jealous of Heathcliff but she never had the chance to get him since she thought it would be a good idea to marry someone who, at the time, was very controlling to her. If someone is being very controlling than it should not go unnoticed. Between men and women, power should always be equal and if a man has more power than the woman then something is wrong and viseversa. All life should be seen as an equal, and not separated into different categories to be mistreated and sexualized.
