Prey and Predator

I ended up getting very into Macbeth as we were reading it, and I wanted to focus on Lady Macbeth and the different aspects of her. From the murderous to the innocent pieces of the queen.

The basis of my art piece is that of a stained glass window. Almost every panel in the piece represents a different part of either Lady Macbeth’s life, or is a tie into The Faerie Queen or Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. 

The center bottom panel is specifically referenced from the renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes (Gentileschi). Gentileschi’s painting of this event is unique in it’s violence considering when it was done. The panel I did  based off this painting seems unfinished when compared to the rest of the painting. Although I promise I did that for a reason. Despite being the one to often receive blame for Duncan’s death, Lady Macbeth did not kill him (she just called her husband a coward for thinking about backing out). There’s no faces because she isn’t the one who did it. It’s not clear or finished because it’s a depiction of what she sees in her nightmares every night (Shakespeare 5.1).

The far left Panel has Lady Macbeth in mens clothing, partially modeled off of a depiction of King Malcolm, and waving (“Malcolm IV”). Malcolm became king the same year that Macbeth died, 1058, which is why I chose Malcolm to base her clothing off of (“The Annals of Ulster”). It’s supposed to represent her right after Macbeth became king, she’s proud of the fact that they’ve achieved their ambitions. And yet she has bags under her eyes, she’s tired. Macbeth doesn’t say when her sleepwalking started, but the guilt of her and Macbeth’s actions had been clawing at her for a while.

The far right panel is interesting. It’s a sleepwalking Lady Macbeth holding the dagger in her hands. Except she’s not a soldier, she’s never killed before, and due to that she’s not even holding it correctly in her nightmares. The bottom of her nightgown is stained in blood, and behind her head is a halo modeled after Byzantine halo’s in mosaics (“Justinian I”). It was meant to be a contrast between the traditional beliefs of what a wife should be and how Lady Macbeth actually acts 

My depiction of Lady Macbeth was based on the painting “Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth” by John Sargent. The center bottom panel’s hairstyle was directly inspired by the painting, while the other panels with her in them were more inspired by the green and red that stand out so beautifully in the painting (Sargent). The green used in the far left panel has a second meaning, Shakespeare himself used the color green to describe jealousy (Academy of American Poets). And while not outright jealous of her husband she is certainly the more ambitious of the two.   There’s only one use of pure white in the entire piece; which is the center panel. While I did not put Lady Macbeth Herself in tartan I did include the MacBeth tartan as part of the background (“Macbeth Tartan”). And through research found that women did wear family tartans in the 1600’s, although there is very little information about women’s dress in the highlands before the 1700’s (MacDonald). Although it is mentioned that womens tartans were generally lighter than the mens versions I used the darker version of the tartan to work in tandem with her wearing mens clothing in one of the panels. Both of which are in reference to the “unsex me” from the play (Shakespeare 1.5.49). 

The panel with the animals in it includes the donkey that Una rides in The Faerie Queene as well as one of the animals Bernlak hunted in Gawain and the Green Knight. The Faerie Queene mentions a donkey (or ass) that’s whiter than snow, and then proceeds to mention how Una is still whiter than the donkey (Spenser). And in Gawain and the Green Knight Bernlak brings Gawain something that he hunted each day (Weston). I chose to draw the donkey and the deer due to both of them being prey animals. Women are often compared to does, and Artemis protector of women and children is often depicted with deer. 

The top panels are all rather small in comparison. One has her potential real first name written over and over again, another has the crown that her and her husband murdered to acquire. And the third has the fearsome red dragon, sized down to a far less intimidating stature. It’s a dragon meant to represent sin, or maybe the devil itself, and she’s pushed it to the back of her mind like she’s tried to push away her guilt. The panel with the dagger and letter was an attempt to show how Macbeth played a hand in her ambitions as well.
The last panel is that of the Virgin Mary. Once again the halo’s been used to try and show some kind of purity. For the first time a pure white has been used because the Virgin Mary was viewed as the paragon of purity. Kind, forgiving, caring, and so very far from Lady Macbeth.

Lady Macbeth is many things. She’s full of anger and ambition and yet she knows how to fool a man into thinking he’s safe. And in spite of all of that she feels guilt over her actions. She’s no more a monster than the donkey.

Works Cited

Academy of American Poets. “Othello, Act III, Scene III [O, Beware, My Lord, of Jealousy] by William Shakespeare – Poems | Academy of American Poets.” Poets.org, poets.org/poem/othello-act-iii-scene-iii-o-beware-my-lord-jealousy.

Gentileschi, Artemisia. “Judith Slaying Holofernes.” Wikipedia, Oil on Canvas, 1612, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Slaying_Holofernes_(Artemisia_Gentileschi,_Naples).

“Justinian I.” Britannica, Mosaic, http://www.britannica.com/art/halo-art.

“Macbeth Tartan.” Welsh Tartan Centres, welsh-tartan.com/tartans/macbeth-ancient/.

MacDonald, Peter Eslea. Musings on the Arisaid and Other Female Dress. 2016, http://www.scottishtartans.co.uk/Musings_on_the_arisaid_and_other_female_dress.pdf.

“Malcolm IV.” Wikipedia, 1159, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_IV_of_Scotland.

Sargent, John Singer. “Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth.” Wikipedia, Oil, 1889, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Terry_as_Lady_Macbeth.

Shakespeare, William. “Macbeth.” Www.folger.edu, Folger Shakespeare Library, 1623, http://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/macbeth/read/.

Spenser, Edmund. “The Faerie Queene, Book 1, Canto 1.” Representative Poetry Online, 2025, rpo.library.utoronto.ca/content/faerie-queene-book-1-canto-1-1596. Accessed 17 Oct. 2025.

“The Annals of Ulster.” Celt.ucc.ie, celt.ucc.ie/published/T100001A/index.html.

Weston, Jessie. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight . 1999, http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/sggk_weston.pdf.