Evil Women in Macbeth

In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the female characters have noticeably evil personalities.  Instead of being loud or rebellious, like the women we've seen in other Shakespearean plays, these women have the power to make their will a reality, and will do so even if it hurts the people around them.

Lady Macbeth is a very important character to the plot of the play; she is able to convince her husband to perform actions that will benefit her.  When Macbeth decides it would be better not to murder Duncan, she convinces him otherwise; when he commits the murder but forget to plant the daggers and frame the servants, Lady Macbeth performs this action herself.  Men living in the Elizabethan era should feel threatened of her not only because of her strong will and malevolent behavior, but also because her husband considers her as an equal.  Macbeth makes sure to inform her of his run in with the witches immediately, and the driving actions of the play are performed by Lady Macbeth and her husband as a team.

The witches are very evil characters; although they have nothing to gain by putting their curse on Macbeth, they do so anyway.  To an extent, it would make sense that they would harm someone that they believe to have mistreated them, such as the sailor and his wife.  However, the play tells us of no reason for the witches to hate Macbeth to the extent that they would cause his untimely death.

The men in this play, with the exception of Macbeth, act as proper gentlemen throughout the play; this helps us see the contrast between the two genders.  This reflects many of the ideas set forth by Elizabethan society, none more so than the feeling that women shouldn't be trusted.