Prompt: How does Shakespeare explore gender difference and the relationship between gender and power in an aggressively patriarchal society? What sorts of power do women wield? By what means? Why do female characters often seem so manipulative? Think, too, about comparing and contrasting the ultimate demise of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
Thesis:
In Macbeth,
Shakespeare creates unconventional difference between his women and men by allowing women to overcome their stereotype of weakness and having men shy away from their stereotype of strength.
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Topic Sentence: The ambition that lady Macbeth possesses allows her to appear stronger than the traditional women of the time.
Passage ID:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have plucked my
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After Macbeth had told her that he was not going to murder Duncan, Lady Macbeth challenges him by telling him that she would have enough ambition to follow through with her promise. At the time, men usually did most of the work and were expected to have more ambition. However, Lady Macbeth tells him that if she had, “so sworn as you have,” she would have killed her own child. As “it was smiling” to her, she would, “have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums
And dashed the brains out.” She takes the value of keeping her promises to the extreme in which she would do anything to achieve her ambition. She has lost her stereotypical feminine or motherly instincts of love, care, and protection as she said that she would kill her own child. Instead, she will do anything to reach her ambitions, usually what only a man would do. Although Lady Macbeth might not have a child, the point is still true in that if she had promised to do something, she would fulfill it. This implies that she is more cautious and skeptical in making promises than Macbeth.
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Topic Sentence: Macbeth shies away from his stereotype of strength by not having enough courage to fulfill his