The Fiendlike Queen

Recuperating Lady Macbeth in Contemporary Adaptations of Macbeth

Authors

William C. Carroll Boston University

Keywords:

Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Novel

Abstract

Many adaptations and appropriations in recent decades have attempted to recast the "fiend-like queen" Lady Macbeth in a more positive light — a difficult task, given her actions in Shakespeare's play. These representations move far away from earlier texts in which "Lady Macbeth" is little more than a synonym for a murderous woman. Several recent works of popular culture seek, instead, an explanation or rationale for her participation in Duncan's murder through reference to her earlier marriage and son by that marriage (both suppressed in Shakespeare's play), to her situation as a woman in a culture of Celtic masculinity, and even to a supposed daughter, with whom she is ultimately reunited. The result is a repentant, heroic, even justified Lady Macbeth. Among the works discussed are Gordon Bottomley, Gruach(1919), Susan Fraser King, Lady Macbeth: A Novel (2008), Lisa M. Klein, Lady Macbeth's Daughter (2009), and A. J. Hartley and David Hewson, Macbeth: A Novel (2012).

Author Biography

William C. Carroll, Boston University

William C. Carroll is Professor of English at Boston University. Among his publications are The Great Feast of Language in Love's Labour's Lost, The Metamorphoses of Shakespearean Comedy, and Fat King, Lean Beggar: Representations of Poverty in the Age of Shakespeare. He has also published the following scholarly editions: Thomas Middleton, Women Beware Women (New Mermaids); Shakespeare, Macbeth: Texts and Contexts (Bedford Shakespeare); Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Arden Third Series); Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost (New Cambridge Shakespeare); and Thomas Middleton: Four Plays (New Mermaids). In 2005-2006 he served as President of the Shakespeare Association of America.