Women's discourse of power in Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'

Scientific Essay from the year 2013 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: M.A, , course: Discourse Analysis, language: English, abstract: Women in 'Macbeth' (i.e., Lady Macbeth and the Witches) speak a strange language that is very similar to what women seek today. This language can be described as antilanguage: a language by which women can direct, control, and dominate men. This paper introduces a contradictory statement to the current views in discourse analysis, which indicate that women are powerless, trivial, dominated, and sexual objects (Andersen, 1988, Chaika, 1982; Lakoff, 1975) by showing women as powerful, serious, and dominating as men. In doing so, it focuses on the recent views of discourse, power, and women, taking Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' as a field of application by analyzing Lady Macbeth's turns of talk.

Ph. D. in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), lecturer of English and translator, faculty of education, Shaqra University, interested in linguistic, discursive, and pragmatic writings and researches as well as translation from English into Arabic and vice versa. Email: aelsharkawy@su.edu.sa