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Gender Imagery In Macbeth

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Intro In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare there is an astonishing amount of imagery that is used throughout the play to help the audience paint pictures with his words and understand the importance of ambition. The imagery that shows the differences between light and darkness help us understand the struggles your ambition causes you and the path it takes you on. Second, the imagery surrounding the gender demonstrates how the roles of gender can manipulate someone's sense of ambition and drive them to do unexplainable things. Third, the imagery shown in relation to appearance vs reality amplifies the theme because it shows the consequences and success ambition can lead to. Finally, the blood and the dagger have an effect by showing that …show more content…

Lady Macbeth is aware of what needs to be done in order for her and Macbeth to achieve greatness, her being “unsexed” shows her ambition by wanting to remove anything that makes her seen as weak. “ That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood” (Macbeth, Shakespeare). Ambition can be determined based off of your appearance, the role of gender helps others make assumptions as to the type of person you are, if we can eliminate the labels placed on a person we reveal their achievements and goals. When we understand Lady Macbeth's opinion on what she believes her husband and his ambition involves it could suggest her gender role and why she is attempting to become the man of the house. “ Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way” ( Macbeth, Shakespeare). Ambition does not have to be described by the person possessing it, it can come from the descriptions other characters give them. Lady Macbeth has a large impact on not only the audience and their understanding of the theme, other characters in the play rely on her to demonstrate courageous acts of ambition. “ Lady Macbeth was ‘very ambitious’, Shakespeare conjured a character who, despite the many things about her that remain enigmatic, has exercised a powerful …show more content…

The appearance that Macbeth wishes to have seems like a glorious thing when in reality he is faced with troubles that will haunt him and those around him. “Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man’s act, threatens his bloody stage”. (Macbeth, Shakespeare). When a larger group of people is affected by one person's actions it creates different storylines all expressing issues based off of one incident, it’s almost as if giving backup to the destruction of ambition. When Macbeth is referring to the success he had during the battle he does not feel entirely good about his actions, his ambition caused him to exceed his comfortability of combat and he did feel guilty. “ So foul and fair a day I have not seen.”( Macbeth, Shakespeare). Ambition may lead to a downfall in a characters life but by doing so creates anagnorisis - a device that helps connect the audience to the play. When the readers and audience are unable to understand what a book or play is saying they are missing out on information that is crucial to the understanding of the play. “ In my experience, there are two kinds of Shakespeare performances for the audiences : (1) They can understand the words, (2) They can’t understand the words. They like 1 and they don't like 2.” ( How Shakespeare Changed Everything). The appearances of almost everything can be viewed in different ways by everyone when

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