Saturday, March 1, 2014
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.
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I really liked the comparison to the use of great in Harry Potter. That instance defines the two uses of great perfectly. I, too, find myself struggling to decide whether Macbeth is still truly great and whether or not that has to do with Lady Macbeth being a great woman. I think that despite everything, the fact that Lady Macbeth is still around makes her a great woman in the sense that she is "supporting" her husband in his ambitions. If using the word great in the sense that she is a good person I can't say she is great as she is letting Macbeth destroy his friends for the power of being king. I believe that Macbeth is a powerful man and a great man as he is getting what he most wants using whatever means necessary and he is succeeding, and I do believe that if Lady Macbeth wasn't there he'd not be as great. So I guess I'm saying I do believe that behind every great man is a great women.
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