Rethinking of my Previous Opinions on "Behind Every Great Man is a Great Woman"

In one of my previous blog posts regarding Macbeth, I portrayed my thoughts that this particular Shakespearean tragedy supported the statement "Behind Every Great Man is a Great Woman." After reading further into this play, I must say that my feelings regarding this matter are slightly muddled. After Act III, Lady Macbeth no longer stands behind Macbeth's decisions, especially with the murders of Banquo and Macduff's family. So is it Macbeth who is no longer a great man because his wife no longer is behind him? Or is Macbeth still a "great" man in spite of the fact that he no longer has a great woman standing behind him? I think that this all depends on the reader's perception of the word great. For example, in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Mr. Ollivander refers to Voldemort as a great wizard, "terrible, but great." In this sense of the word, great simply refers to ones skills or powers; however, when I generally think of the word great, I think of positive impacts on the world, not just the quantity of someone's power, although, the two can be related. In the mind of Mr. Ollivander, I'm sure Macbeth would still considered to be a great man, as he is still King of Scotland, and came into that position with the work of his own two hands; however, I'm not sure that I am in agreement with that idea. Once Macbeth turned to the dark side, I believe that he no longer was a great man, but instead a terrible one, which would still support the idea that "behind every gray man is a great woman" because Macbeth is no longer great, and his wife no longer stands behind him.

Fear of the Monster

After the commencement of Act III in Macbeth, Lady Macbeth's fear of the monster that she created is extremely apparent. Lady Macbeth could justify to herself the murder of Duncan, since doing so would result in Macbeth becoming King; however, the murder of Banquo and the attempted murder of his son definitely negatively affected her conscience. Although it was she who originally convinced Macbeth to commit his first murder even though he felt slightly uncomfortable with the idea, she was whole-heartedly against any other murders from Macbeth, as she could not justify the killing of multiple innocent people just because Macbeth felt threatened. In my opinion, Lady Macbeth play a significant role in the making of the murderous monster that Macbeth came to be, and yet, she grew to fear it [him]. Shakespeare wove a significant moral into the story in my opinion, and that is to always think about the consequences of your actions before you make them, something that Lady Macbeth obviously did not do when she practically forced her husband to kill his King.