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.