Gender Motif In Macbeth

William Shakespeare's works have been highly regarded throughout the many years since their conception, this regard could stem from Shakespeare's expert integration of the themes and motifs. His play Macbeth, contains a plethora of themes and motifs that intermingle to produce a work that is timelessly intriguing and unique. Through the use of character interaction Shakespeare flawlessly incorporates the theme of gender and the motif of faces and masks. The first act of Macbeth establishes the groundwork for both the theme and its supporting motif of faces and masks. From the very first scene the witches established that everything will be shrouded in a metaphorical mask by saying, “Fair is foul, and foul is fair,” thereby establishing a precedent for faces and masks (1.1.10). Further on in the act the theme of gender becomes evident.This is illustrated by Lady Macbeth when she denies her gender in order to embody her devious and murderous plots,

...Come, you spirits

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. (1.5.32-35)

While she wears the mask of a

Lady Macbeth is overcome with her role in the murders that she sleepwalks and in sleep she is cleared of any pretenses. “The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?—What, / Will these hands ne'er be clean?”(5.1.34-35). Her expression of concern for the wife of the man she murdered is an honest reflection of her gender and caring about those who share her status. Yet, she is so entrenched by her lies and masks that she has to kill herself to truly be unburdened. Throughout the entirety of the play Macbeth accumulates many faces and masks in the name of his gender and at the conclusion of the act everyone sees him as he truly is, “We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, / Painted on a pole, and underwrit, / 'Here may you see the