Sunday, February 22, 2015

Lady Macbeth and Marilyn Monroe: Enigmatic Women


            Shakespeare’s Macbeth connects to Andy Warhol’s pop art painting of Marilyn Monroe because both of these works prominently feature enigmatic women. At the forefront of Macbeth is the character of Lady Macbeth, who is the driving force behind Duncan’s murder. However, later in the play, Lady Macbeth is plagued by intense feelings of remorse. She sleepwalks and tries to scrub away nonexistent bloodstains. Towards the end of the play, Lady Macbeth flings herself off of the balcony, presumably because she could not handle the guilt from Duncan’s murder. To the untrained eye, Lady Macbeth was simply a beautiful, young queen. When examined further, however, Lady Macbeth becomes a puzzling character. One of Warhol’s most famous works consists of multiple pictures of Marilyn Monroe silkscreened in different colors. Marilyn Monroe, like Lady Macbeth, was in a position of power in society. While she may not have been as evil or conniving as Lady Macbeth, she certainly had some flaws. Monroe allegedly had an affair with President Kennedy, who was married at the time. Just like that of Lady Macbeth, there was a significant amount of controversy surrounding Monroe’s death. She was found in her bed with an empty bottle of pills and a phone in her hand, but the witnesses and timelines surrounding her death are inconsistent. On the surface, Monroe was a beautiful woman, a sex symbol, and a role model for many. But underneath the façade was a very different person, one who cheated and lied. While these women existed hundreds of years apart, they were both enigmatic to the core.    

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