[Avane]

The women in Shakespeare's plays were in many cases, truely amazing. In an age in which women were not [acknowledged] participants in the public sphere, other than our very own Fairie Queen, QEI [who really got there by default, daddy couldn't have a healthy boy...]. It is surprising that many of his female characters were as strong and as central to the direction of his plots as they were.
An outstanding example is Lady Macbeth. She exhibits many of what is considered to be unfeminine, male characteristics in her single-mindedness and determination, and let's face it blood-thirsty-ness.
In a play written 400 years ago, Lady Macbeth's disgust at her husband's evasiveness and indecision in their pact to kill the king Duncan and her visceral declaration of her feelings on the subject, is written with a degree of imagery that is yes, breathtaking. Act 2 Scene 1.
Lady Macbeth: "What beast was't then
That made you break this enterprise with me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man:
And to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man.
...I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn
As you have done to this."
It is the complexity and fertile imagery of Shakespeare's writing that leaves me awed and amazed.