Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth

Year: 2017

Runtime: 89 min

Language: English

Director: William Oldroyd

Echo Score: 75
Drama

In 19th century England, a woman trapped in a loveless marriage finds herself yearning for autonomy and passion. Her stifling existence is ignited by a forbidden and intense love affair with a young man, challenging the rigid social conventions that have defined her life and threatening to shatter the established order of her world.

Dark
Bleak ending
Emotionally heavy
High intensity
Slow pacing
Moderate complexity

Warning: spoilers below!

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Timeline & Setting – Lady Macbeth (2017)

Explore the full timeline and setting of Lady Macbeth (2017). Follow every major event in chronological order and see how the environment shapes the story, characters, and dramatic tension.

Time period

1865

Set in the mid-19th century English countryside, the film places Katherine in a rigid, patriarchal social order. Women have limited autonomy, and marriage is a matter of status and inheritance. The period's etiquette frames the characters' choices and the consequences of defiance are severe.

Location

Lester estate, rural Northumberland, North East England

The action unfolds on the Boris estate in a secluded rural Northumberland landscape. The mansion and its outbuildings form a harsh, controlling environment where marriage and class duties are strictly policed. The surrounding woods and farmed lands are scenes of both oppression and secret desires, shaping the characters' fates.

🏰 Manor 🌄 Rural countryside 🗺️ Regional setting

Last Updated: October 03, 2025 at 19:42

Main Characters – Lady Macbeth (2017)

Meet the key characters of Lady Macbeth (2017), with detailed profiles, motivations, and roles in the plot. Understand their emotional journeys and what they reveal about the film’s deeper themes.

Katherine (Florence Pugh)

A young wife trapped in a loveless, arranged marriage who seizes control through calculated rebellion. She initiates and sustains an affair, poisons Boris, and later murders Alexander to take over the estate. By the end she is pregnant and largely alone, having rewritten her life within the manor’s walls.

🔥 Protagonist 💃 Complex 🧭 Ambitious

Sebastian (Cosmo Jarvis)

A laborer who enters Katherine's life and becomes her clandestine lover. His loyalty to Katherine wavers as he becomes entangled in a web of murder and cover-up. He ultimately confesses his role as events unravel, becoming a pawn in Katherine's machinations.

💘 Lover 🤝 Complicated 🕵️ Intriguing

Boris (Christopher Fairbank)

The master of the estate and a brutal patriarch who enforces harsh discipline, especially toward Anna. His sudden death removes the primary constraint on Katherine's plans, but his memory lingers as an example of oppressive authority.

🏛️ Patriarch 🔪 Abusive

Anna (Naomi Ackie)

The housemaid who endures abuse and later bears witness to the murders. Once found powerless, she becomes a mute presence that others rely on to shape the estate's fate. Her silence complicates judgment and truth.

🤐 Silent 🧭 Loyal

Alexander Lester (Paul Hilton)

Katherine's husband, older and controlling, whose suspicions of infidelity set off a chain of violent acts. He is murdered by Katherine, ending a marriage built on dominance and propriety.

💍 Husband ⚖️ Aristocrat

Agnes (Golda Rosheuvel)

A woman who arrives at the estate with a boy named Teddy, claiming the boy is the product of an affair between Alexander and her daughter. She provides a link to outside connections and complicates Katherine's position.

👩‍🍼 Stranger 🗝️ Catalyst

Teddy

A young boy involved in the estate's drama who disappears and is later implied to have died, affecting the household's dynamics and adding to the sense of danger.

🧒 Child 🛡️ Vulnerable

Last Updated: October 03, 2025 at 19:42

Major Themes – Lady Macbeth (2017)

Explore the central themes of Lady Macbeth (2017), from psychological, social, and emotional dimensions to philosophical messages. Understand what the film is really saying beneath the surface.

🔒 Power & Control

The estate's hierarchy forces Katherine into obedience, while Boris's domineering rule justifies violent discipline. As she asserts agency, control shifts in dangerous ways. The film examines how fear and dominance sustain a brutal status quo.

💘 Forbidden Love

Katherine's affair with Sebastian exposes the fragility of social boundaries. Their passion contrasts with the veneer of propriety, driving acts that spectators deem transgressive. Love becomes a catalyst for rebellion and murder.

🌿 Isolation & Nature

The rural setting isolates the characters, amplifying loneliness and desperation. The countryside becomes both a trap and a sanctuary where illicit acts occur. The environment shapes decisions and blinds characters to consequences.

⚖️ Justice & Silence

Anna's muteness and society's suspicions create a biased narrative that sways judgment. Katherine's manipulation of truth tests what justice means in this world. Silence can be as lethal as crime when voices are not heard.

Last Updated: October 03, 2025 at 19:42

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Explore Movie Threads

Discover curated groups of movies connected by mood, themes, and story style. Browse collections built around emotion, atmosphere, and narrative focus to easily find films that match what you feel like watching right now.

Slow burn stories of moral collapse like in Lady Macbeth

Quiet lives unravel into shocking acts of rebellion against societal prisons.If you liked Lady Macbeth, you might enjoy other movies that explore a slow descent into moral ambiguity. These films capture the quiet, simmering tension of lives constrained by society, leading to shocking acts of rebellion and grim consequences. Find similar slow burn dramas here.

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Narrative Summary

These narratives typically begin with a protagonist trapped in a restrictive environment, fueled by a desire for freedom or passion. A catalyst event ignites a rebellion that escalates in severity, often involving transgressive acts. The journey is one of moral decay, where initial sympathy for the protagonist becomes complicated by their increasingly ruthless actions, frequently leading to a bleak conclusion.

Why These Movies?

These films are grouped together because they share a deliberate, atmospheric pacing that builds psychological tension. They focus on character-driven stories of rebellion against oppressive systems, exploring themes of power, gender, and class through a dark, unflinching lens that prioritizes grim realism over redemption.

Claustrophobic domestic thrillers with grim consequences like Lady Macbeth

Stories where the home becomes a cage, breeding secrets and violence.For viewers who appreciated the oppressive, confined feeling of Lady Macbeth, this thread features movies where the home is a source of tension and dread. Discover similar films about secrets, forbidden passions, and violence erupting within domestic walls, all with a heavy emotional weight.

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Narrative Summary

The narrative revolves around characters, often women, confined to a specific location—a house, an estate—that symbolizes their oppression. The plot is driven by internal conflicts, forbidden passions, and psychological games. The limited setting intensifies the drama, making every interaction charged with unspoken tension, often escalating to crime or tragedy as characters fight for agency within their gilded cage.

Why These Movies?

These movies are united by their intensely claustrophobic atmosphere and focus on domestic settings as microcosms of larger societal pressures. They share a high level of psychological tension, a dark tone, and explore themes of oppression, hidden violence, and the consequences of breaking free from prescribed roles.

Unlock the Full Story of Lady Macbeth

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Lady Macbeth Summary

Read a complete plot summary of Lady Macbeth, including all key story points, character arcs, and turning points. This in-depth recap is ideal for understanding the narrative structure or reviewing what happened in the movie.

Lady Macbeth Summary

Lady Macbeth Timeline

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Lady Macbeth Timeline

Lady Macbeth Spoiler-Free Summary

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Lady Macbeth Spoiler-Free Summary

More About Lady Macbeth

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Lady Macbeth (2017) Plot Summary & Movie Recap

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Lady Macbeth (2017) Spoiler-Free Summary & Key Flow