ipl-logo

Gender Roles In Macbeth

966 Words4 Pages

Macbeth and the Great Chain of Being In the Elizabethan era, it was believed that everyone and everything had a place in the world that God and therefore fate had decided for them. This hierarchy, called the Great Chain of Being created stability in the society. Anything that did not belong in the chain or disrupted it created chaos in the world that could not be fixed until the wrong had be rectified. William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is the story of a Scottish thane whose vaulting ambition and naivety cause his eventual demise as he becomes king. With the encouragement from three witches and his wife, Macbeth achieves his goals by killing the king and others who threaten his title. Throughout the play, the Great Chain of Being is broken several times because of Macbeth’s unjust murders and as well characters defying their gender roles. To begin, according to Elizabethan society, the chain has been broken for the reason that characters do not act in way which correspond with their gender. Firstly, as Lady Macbeth learns of the witches’ prophecies that hail Macbeth as future King of Scotland, she wishes for the strength to kill Duncan. She prays to the spirits and cries “unsex me here, / And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full / of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood, / Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse” (1.5.42-45). Lady …show more content…

He looks sick, therefore he is weak as a woman would be, and he is cowardly for the reason that he doubts his actions. In this time period, it was believed that a real man was certain of his actions. Thus, Macbeth breaks the chain because he frequently displays feminine traits that are considered weak and lesser. The result is that he must also been taken out of the chain. Macbeth does not act as a man should and therefore he does not fit into the society. To conclude, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth disrupt the Great Chain of Being by displaying many traits that are not that of their

Show More
Related

Macbeth Greed Quotes

1464 Words | 6 Pages

Macbeth at this time is overwhelmed with uncertainties and decides his best course of action is to end the chain of power before it begins. Macbeth’s need for political status takes over him as he disregards the friendship

Read More

Isolation In Macbeth And The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald

1533 Words | 7 Pages

When the story begins, Macbeth truly is a “peerless kinsman” to the king (1.4.66); however, as the story progresses others refer to him in this way only because they are oblivious to his true desire” (Balwan 3). As Balwan states, Macbeth has as significant change due to the so call “power” of being king. While Macbeth transitions to a new form of character, he isolates himself from Lady Macbeth. As the power increases, Macbeth is determined to kill.

Read More

Persuasion And Patience In Macbeth

668 Words | 3 Pages

Part of him wishes to reach his potential and become king, and the other part wishes to honor his oath to the current king. Both sides of his free will are trumped by Lady Macbeth when she scolds him for being a coward. She tells him “When you durst do it, then you were a man; / and to be more than what you were, you would / be so much more the man,” (Shakespeare I.vii.56-58). By saying this, she mocks his fears and implies that his masculinity relies on his ability to perform the task. By equating Macbeth’s manhood with betrayal and violence, she ensures that he will go to those lengths to prove it — thus sacrificing his morality in hopes of social acceptance and praise.

Read More

Examples Of Syntax In Macbeth

919 Words | 4 Pages

In Macbeth, Shakespeare writes about a man named Macbeth, who has a very strong ambition to be the the king of Scotland. His credulousness led him into believing the prophecy from the three witches without thinking rigorously. Because of this prophecy, Macbeth is willing to do everything he can to gain the throne, even to the extreme of murdering someone. Shakespeare uses syntax, similes, and personification to convey the evolution of Macbeth’s insanity.

Read More

Gender And Gender Stereotypes In Shakespeare's Macbeth

1514 Words | 7 Pages

Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, focuses on the tumultuous events that surround a regicide. Despite being the shortest of Shakespeare’s plays, in his critical study of the play A. C. Bradley concludes that due to its vehement nature the audience is left with an impression “not of brevity but of speed” . The principal female character of Lady Macbeth is arguably one of his most contentious. Consumed with intense passion, ambition and greed she challenges the subservient role of the traditional Elizabethan woman. She has disturbed, horrified and intrigued both contemporary and modern audiences alike through her powerful diction.

Read More

Gender And Gender Roles In Shakespeare's Macbeth

998 Words | 4 Pages

Men want to be known for being strong and protective. During Act 3 Lady Macbeth questions her husband's manhood and calls him a coward, Lady MacBeth said “ ... Feed and regret him not,- are you a man?” (III.IV.72). Lady Macbeth says that to her husband because she wanted to push him to do dirty work that she planned out in her head.

Read More

Macbeth's Strengths And Weaknesses

824 Words | 4 Pages

At the beginning of William Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ the protagonist Macbeth is described as ‘brave’, ‘noble’ and ‘honourable’, however Lady Macbeth’s and Macbeths desire for power consumes them. Macbeth’s ambition overrides his conscience and transformed his greatest strength into his greatest weakness. Macbeth’s inability to resist temptations that led him to be greedy for power, Macbeth’s easily manipulative nature which allowed his mind to be swayed, Macbeth having no self control and his excessive pride was what allowed him to renew his previously honourable and celebrated title into one of an evil ‘tyrant’. Macbeth is led by the prophecies of the witches after they foretell he will become the Thane of Cawdor. Not only the witches, but also his wife easily manipulate Macbeth as she attacks his manhood in order to provoke him to act on his desires.

Read More

Macbeth Gender Roles Essay

1476 Words | 6 Pages

Lady Macbeth takes on a “manly” role, which is surprising because of how patriarchal the society is. However, she “gradually falls apart, consumed by guilt, and eventually commits suicide”. (Klett) Lady Macbeth does not conform to medieval Scotland’s female stereotype of being a domestic wife.

Read More

Macbeth Gender Roles

818 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout all of macbeth, gender roles are present in all of the halls of Macbeth's castle. It is extraordinary how William Shakespeare has molded and set examples of the male masculinity struggle and to uphold it, while on the other side how women must be treated as fragile birds. Shakespeare uses gender roles ironically to portray the complexity of the characters he has created. With all of human characters, the witches on their own face gender roles in the way of their appearances.

Read More

Analysis Of Lady Macbeth's Soliloquy '

411 Words | 2 Pages

She calls on the night to “pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell” (1.5.48) so that “my keen knife see not the wound it makes” (1.5.49). By requesting a darkness that covers her actions like a “pall” (a shroud used to cover dead bodies), not even her own knife knows the cruel reality of her plan. She intends to keep the murder concealed, so that not even the “heavens peep through the blanket of the dark / to cry ‘Hold, hold!’” (1.5.50-51). In her mind, the darkness is the only way she can be safe and subsequently succeed in her plan.

Read More

The Great Chain Of Being In The Elizabethan Era

342 Words | 2 Pages

Macbeth ruins the chain by heeding to the Witches prophecies and killing Duncan; the disruption

Read More

Traditional Gender Roles In Shakespeare's Macbeth

973 Words | 4 Pages

Traditional gender roles in today’s society are very different from what they once were. Shakespeare had progressive views on gender and gender roles in his time period, which he expressed through his writing. In MacBeth, Shakespeare showcases both his views and unusual roles through Macbeth and Lady MacBeth, MacDuff and the witches. Gender roles in the relationship of MacBeth and Lady MacBeth are probably the most obvious correlation between masculine traits expressed through female characters. Lady MacBeth belittles MacBeth and frequently challenges his manhood.

Read More

Role Of Masculinity In Macbeth

434 Words | 2 Pages

The ideology of masculinity and in this tragedy is that men, at times, need to be violent and aggressive to appease their ambitious nature. The moment that part of the witches’ prophecy became true Macbeth knew he would do anything to assure the rest of the prophecy would also occur. Macbeth knew he would have to perform heinous acts of violence and treason in order to become king, but at the time he did not care because his ambitious nature over took his rationality. When Macbeth finally started to question himself about killing Duncan his wife steps in and questions his masculinity because she knew this would be the only way to accomplish the

Read More

Hunger For Power In Macbeth

760 Words | 4 Pages

Macbeth’s impatience for power leads to drastic actions. He murders the king in the belief that “this blow might be the be-all and end-all” (1.7.5). This assassination could never “trammel up the consequence” (1.7.2-3), as Macbeth believes, but only leads to more trouble. Although Macbeth seizes the throne, Macbeth had to betray his loyalty to the king whose “virtues will plead like angels” (1.7.18-19), and his morality has paid the price. Macbeth has now lost all sense of what honor is by using such dishonest ways to become king.

Read More

The Battle Between Good And Evil In Shakespeare's Othello

757 Words | 4 Pages

Virtuous characters lose their battles with evil, which does not appear in the human antagonist form (Miller). Revisiting the philosophy of Aquinas, he believed that humans have the potential to reflect the aspects of God or ignore that potential and reflect personal desires. Without any aspects of God, a human becomes nothing. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth find themselves with the potential to acquire a position of royalty, but instead of operating through God’s desires, they immediately turn to evil methods to obtain these positions (Tufts). Lady Macbeth says Macbeth becoming king is “the ornament of life” (1.7.42), and her ambition causes her to do anything to achieve it at the slightest possibility.

Read More

More about Gender Roles In Macbeth

Related Topics

Open Document