Redeeming Lady Macbeth

Abstract

Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth (2015) reflects the religious intertextuality that permeates cultural debates about gender underlying Shakespeare’s text. The aim of this article is to determine the extent to which Kurzel’s cinematic text challenges or conforms to medieval and early modern gender construals in its attempt to allegedly rewrite and redeem Lady Macbeth by articulating hegemonic Christian and Pagan discourses on womanhood, femininity and (dis)embodiment. In this context, Julian of Norwich’s theology, especially her conception of ‘divine motherhood’ and sin, is key to assess the film’s concern with atoning Lady Macbeth for her transgressions through its depiction of her haunting motherhood, which is presented as the origin of her grief and guilt as well as her road to penitence and redemption.