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Femininity In Lady Macbeth

509 Words3 Pages

Bloodthirsty ambition is presented throughout William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, beginning with Lady Macbeth's plotting of King Duncan's demise from the throne. Her motivation is fed through her need of constant success and her desire to strive for excellence. In the male-dominated society which she lives in, she realizes that in order to be influential and affluent, she must remove any qualities that are deemed feminine. Yet, as Lady Macbeth retracts her true nature, the unnatural change of her femininity to masculinity inevitably leads to her demise. This disruption of gender roles through Lady Macbeth, presented in Macbeth is demonstrated through her place as the dominant individual in her marriage; because on many occasions, she rules …show more content…

She is only focused on completing her goal of murdering King Duncan so her husband can usurp the throne. She realizes that her husband’s personality is rather meek, and that he would not go through with murdering King Duncan because of a quality that he has, his humanity, which she considers his greatest weakness. Deliberating with herself, she thinks of Macbeth and his potential in regard to what could come to pass: “Yet do I fear thy nature, / It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way” (Shakespeare l.v.16-18). By declaring his nature to “too full of the milk of human kindness”, she is stating that he is too feeble as a man to carry out the murder, and is belittling him for not being “masculine” enough to fulfill his ambition of being King. She knows that her husband has great ambition, and believes it to be a negative thing that he tends to carry out his deeds with a sound conscience as to not affect anyone negatively in the process. In her belief, to have a conscience is to fail. With wickedness is the only possible method to carry out the deed, for that is the only state of being Lady Macbeth truly and comfortably carries within her. She resolutely asserts the importance of not straying from the purpose and seeks to counteract her husband’s shortcomings.

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Her ambition is not only for herself but also for Macbeth. Nevertheless, with all her fervor, she wants him to be as strong as her. “Make thick my blood./Stop up the access and passage to remorse,/That no compunctious visitings of nature/ Shake my fell purpose/Come to my woman’s breasts,/And take my milk for gall” (1.5.44-49). Lady Macbeth never wavers in her goal.

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