Gender roles in Macbeth A motif is a recurring pattern throughout a literary work. William Shakespeare’s Macbeth contains many motifs such as birds, blood, and gender roles. Gender roles are the roles or behaviors learned by a person as appropriate to their gender, determined by the prevailing cultural norms. In the tragedy of Macbeth, a trio of witches prophesy that Macbeth would become thane of Cawdor and eventually King of Scotland, and that Banquo would bring about a line of Scottish kings. At first Macbeth and Banquo were suspicious and didn’t believe the prophecies. Soon after, Macbeth was granted thane of Cawdor and that was when he began to think that maybe the witches were right. He then writes a letter to Lady Macbeth explaining all that has happened. Lady Macbeth then convinces Macbeth to kill Duncan, and from there they plan his and the death of many others. …show more content…
They are not the stereotypical husband and wife. Shakespeare intended to illustrate that your gender does not define how you are or how you should act. That not all men have the capability of murdering easily and not all women are innocent. In Act 1 Scene 5, Lady Macbeth tries to convince Macbeth to murder Duncan. She says “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” (1.5.47-50). She is trying to say that men are usually the cruel ones, not women. Although it was not the spirits that made her cruel, but herself that had the idea to kill Duncan. Being a female does not mean that we must be kind. We were not born that