Lady Macbeth

Content warning: This section of the guide discusses sexual violence.

Ava Reid wrote Lady Macbeth as a reimagining of Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. Macbeth was first performed around 1606 but has been frequently restaged since, remaining one of his most popular tragedies. Reid is one of many modern authors to draw inspiration from this play; other examples include the play Dunsinane by David Greig and the novel Lady Macbeth by Susan Fraser King.

Reid draws on the major plot points of Shakespeare’s play, chiefly Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s scheme to murder King Duncan (Duncane in her novel) so that Macbeth can become king, inspired by the prophecies of three witches. She also uses structure and format to highlight her book’s connection to Macbeth. Early modern plays typically used a formal five-act structure, which Reid mimics by naming her different sections “Acts” and numbering each of the five. This also supports the pacing of the book, which uses the traditional plot beats of a five-act story. Likewise, most printed publications of early modern plays included a list of characters at the start, titled “dramatis personae” (reflecting the period’s educational and cultural focus on Latin and Greek).