Lady Macbeth: Difference between revisions

 

{{quote|''"She'd be back. And she wouldn't burden herself with a husband this time either. Weak! He was the worst of them all, with no courage in him to be as bad as he knew he was, inside.."''

 

Nagging wife of a villain does not even begin to describe this character. This lady is just as crazy as her husband (if not more so). Not only is she supportive of his "evil ambitions" but she helps him to achieve them. [[The Corrupter|She might even turn out to be the leading force behind her husband.]]

 

{{examples}}

* Doctor Ritsuko Akagi from ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' fits into this one, although she wasn't married to Gendo. Most notably, she created the {{spoiler|Rei clones}} that were central to {{spoiler|[[Utopia Justifies the Means|Instrum]][[Assimilation Plot|entality]]}}. However, she's not completely straight as she is being manipulated by Gendo Ikari instead. Yui Ikari, the ''actual'' wife of Gendo Ikari may or may not be one depending on how you interpret her and how much of the plot was actually because of her all along.

* Leda in ''[[Casshern Sins]]'' falls squarely in this trope, goading Dio to take his place as the king of robots.

* Though a mother rather then a wife, {{spoiler|in fact she killed her husband}}, Lady Calcula from the ''[[Doctor Who|I, Davros]]'' audio fits the trope to a t. She uses all of her political savvy, {{spoiler|and frequently plain old murder}} to ensure Davros reaches a position of power. {{spoiler|She even has the distinction of becoming the first complete, albeit terminal, Dalek.}}

 

* Helen Heyer of ''[[V for Vendetta]]'', married to Conrad, the head of the Eye (the fascist Norsefire regime's video surveillance department). In her brief appearance early on, she seems to be nothing more than a catty high-society woman. Later, however, as the Leader {{spoiler|becomes mentally incapable of running the country}}, Helen shows her true colours as a savvy and ruthless manipulator who, having gotten the submissive Conrad his current position, now schemes to have him become Leader, albeit in name only: "I'm going to be like [[Evita|Eva Peron]]," she vows. In the end, {{spoiler|after the regime has completely collapsed, [[Humiliation Conga|she's reduced to homelessness and trading sexual favours for basic life necessities]] }}.

* ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'': Although they were never married, Emma Frost was every bit as evil as her lover Sebastian Shaw during her days in the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle. The Black Queen Selene also ended up being more evil than any of the Hellfire Club's members.

 

* Dame Vaako from the movie ''[[The Chronicles of Riddick]]'' is shown constantly trying to convince her husband to [[You Kill It, You Bought It|kill the Lord Marshal and take his place.]] Unlike other examples, she never gets any comeuppance {{spoiler|aside from her husband's failure}}.

** [[Development Hell|Always assuming the promised next installment in the franchise actually ever materializes]], do you honestly expect {{spoiler|Lord Marshal Riddick}} to put up with her and her husband for long?

* In ''[[Scotland, PA]],'' based upon the source of the Trope Namer, Pat McBeth (Maura Tierney) naturally acts in this capacity for her husband, Joe (James LeGros).

 

* Jezebel. Her husband, King Ahab, is described in [[The Bible]] as Israel's most morally bankrupt king, but she was even worse. Making this [[Older Than Feudalism]]. At least, western European feudalism.

** She was from another country, and believed in a different god, so she had all the Jewish priests killed...hmm...[[History Repeats|that sounds familiar]].

* Nena Bismaquer in [[James Bond (novel)|James Bond]] novel ''For Special Services'' by John Gardner. She is eventually revealed to be {{spoiler|the daughter of Blofeld}}.

* The ''[[Codex Alera]]'' has Lady Invidia Aquitaine, to her husband High Lord Aquitainus Attis. {{spoiler|But it turns out their relationship is actually much more complicated than that, Attis is [[Magnificent Bastard|smarter than we thought]], and their goals may not be all ''that'' compatible...}}

* Eleanor Iselin in ''[[The Manchurian Candidate (novel)|The Manchurian Candidate]]'' is the scheming wife of a senator (who's basically her puppet) in the original novel and first film adaptation, made in 1962. It's subverted in the 2004 adaptation, however, where she's the senator herself.

 

* Sherry Palmer from ''[[24]]'' has often been compared to Lady Macbeth and is a semi-example of this trope, trying to convince her idealist husband to do whatever is necessary to secure the presidency; but only so that she can be the First Lady. During its [[Golden Age]], [[Television Without Pity]] nicknamed her "Lady MacPalmer" or "Lady Mac".

* Lucille from ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]''. No, really.{{context}}

** Margaret is a much less extreme example, but shows some shades of this as well. In "Ourselves Alone", she shows a lot of promise in retrieving Nucky's bankroll and ledger from under police surveillance, then burning it and telling him to commit future deals to memory.

 

* The trope is named after the female lead of [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Macbeth]]'', who encourages her husband to take the throne through regicide. But as he begins [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope]], she starts going insane with guilt.

** She can be seen as the real villain of the story, being evil from pretty much as soon as she enters the story, in opposition to Macbeth who's seen as a favoured subject of the King with good reason. Even when told he would be king, he hoped it would just happen, as opposed to him killing the King himself.

** Hamlet himself wonders ''in-universe'' whether or not she is this, before deciding that even if it's true she's his mom and he should be focusing his hate on Claudius instead.

 

* In ''[[Overlord]]'', there are two possible 'Mistresses' you can pick up. The first one is practically the antithesis of this, trying to convince you that ''helping'' people might benefit your plans for world domination. However, if you 'trade up' for her Evil Sister, Velvet, you've got a bona-fide Lady Macbeth for your castle. While it's not like you [[Villain Protagonist|need the encouragement]], it's always nice to have a dame who can appreciate good evil.

* In ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'', {{spoiler|Kyrie}} is eventually revealed to be this to {{spoiler|Rudolf}} in Episode 7, and is capable of extreme coldness and ruthlessness when it comes to helping her husband. She's even willing to kill for him and {{spoiler|abandon her daughter if he dies because she's not longer of any use}}.

* Vriska in ''[[Homestuck]]'' towards her [[The Masochism Tango|Masochism Tango]] partner Tavros. At least, she fancies herself as this, but since she is, for the most part, terrible at manipulating people, she ends up more as a particularly psychotic [[Toxic Friend Influence]] - the only person she can manipulate is Tavros, and despite her influence over him she can't make him kill her when he needs to as part of her plan to [[Came Back Strong|Come Back Strong]].

 

* After Fox was paired with Xanatos in ''[[Gargoyles]]'', she became a bit of a [[Magnificent Bitch]] herself. And then she became a mom...

** Interestingly, the actual Lady Macbeth who appears is absolutely nothing like the trope. Of course, Macbeth in this version is an [[Anti-Villain]] at worst (being based more on the historical figure than the character).