Shakespeare's WomenShakespeare's tragedies have been studied assiduously by scholars and theater enthusiasts for centuries. A fundamental aspect that adds to the high level of praise paid to his works is the role of women. Although the main protagonists of Shakespeare's plays were men, female characters filled dominant supporting roles. For Shakespeare, women's roles served to generally control the actions of the play, while the male protagonists were left to submit to their wild emotional swings and grandiose displays of love. These dramatic and sometimes conniving emotional displays were often told through long soliloquies that further added depth to the female character. The roles of women in Shakespeare's tragedies still prove enigmatic to even the most experienced scholar; the motives and actions provide the necessary ascending actions and prove essential to the plot. Shakespeare's astute use of attributing the ability to evoke powerful emotions to their male counterparts truly testifies to the high level of complexity and feminine skill that characterizes the women of Shakespeare's tragedies. In Macbeth, the tragedy that tells the story of a noble general-turned-king, the title character is repeatedly influenced by his wife Lady Macbeth; who has more ambition to be a powerful ruler than her husband. Macbeth, Lord of Glamis, is a highly decorated warrior who fights bravely for his king, Duncan of Scotland. Macbeth is a vassal of his lord and Duncan is willing to reward him handsomely for his victories on the battlefield. Once Macbeth defeats the Norwegian army and kills Macdonwald, Duncan plans to promote him to the title Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth is mad... middle of paper...d through increasing action has evolved into a polarity between the spouses due to their combative differences. Shakespeare indicates that his lack of conscience, which at one point was his greatest attribute, is slowly fading away as he begins to have visions and sleepwalking due to his guilt. The same elementary act of washing one's hands from the blood that stained them is no longer capable of making his hands clean "how clean will these hands ever be?" (5.1.49); which further proves that her conscience is starting to eat away at her. As Macbeth begins to become immune to his conscience, Lady Macbeth grows weary of his evil deeds he has committed, similarly when Macbeth dies he is not overcome by the emotion of his "dearest partner in greatness" (1.5.13). It seems that Macbeth has finally evolved into the man she had tried to mold him into: cold and impassive.