rachel+--+lady+macbeth

Lady Macbeth

 This artist's depiction of Lady Macbeth accurately exhibits the extent of her evil nature.

Who was Lady Macbeth?
 Lady Macbeth, wife of the protagonist in Shakespeare's play [|Macbeth], is one of the most evil women we see created by [|Shakespeare]. She manipulates her husband Macbeth so severely that she convinces him to commit regicide so that she may become queen. She is so passionate in her beliefs and what she wants him to do that she loses all grip on reality and is willing to take another human life. One explanation for her psychotic behavior is half-demonstrated when she talks about a child that is never mentioned again. We see a moment of an almost motherly tenderness when she's talking about her child, but then the half-sweet moment is ruined:  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. (1.7.54-59)

 Ilse Koch was the wife of a Nazi commandant, Karl Koch, in a concentration camp during WWII. She was born in Dresden, Germany in 1906 and joined the [|Nazi party] in 1933. When her husband became the commandant of a camp called [|Buchenwald], she became the overseer and soon acquired the nickname "the Bitch of Buchenwald." She would ride around the camp and choose prisoners at random to whip and would also specially murder prisoners who had interesting tattoos that she liked. She would then take the skin with the tattoo and create lampshades or gloves. When her husband was arrested in 1943, she continued on with her participation in the camp alone. She was arrested in 1947 for   "participating in a common criminal plan for encouraging, aiding, abetting and participating in the atrocities at Buchenwald" (Simkin). 
 * Who was Ilse Koch?**

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> <span style="font-size: 130%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> **How are they similar?** Both Ilse Koch and Lady Macbeth have shown a complete lack of empathy towards their peers. Initially, both Lady Macbeth and Ilse Koch showed not the slightest bit of consideration for human life. They both contributed directly to others' deaths in order to try and improve their own status in their world. And like most cowardly sociopaths, they both commited suicide.

[|works cited]