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Limitations Of Lady Macbeth

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Have you ever felt constricted by society 's views on gender? Lady Macbeth used her avaricious and imperious personality to come off as a manly figure. Although she wanted to pursue power, she faced various limitations because of her gender. Her resolution was to use other people to make her way up to the top.
Lady Macbeth has a strong desire for eminence and uses her husband Macbeth who trusts her so much to help her achieve that. First, she does not want to be a woman because she feels restrained and limited to her abilities. “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here . . . “(12). She is feeling trapped in someone 's else 's body and by wanting to be “unsexed” she believes that becoming a man will solve all of her problems and make her life easier. Being in charge as women was completely unthought of at the time and she needed the additional help to become more powerful. Lady …show more content…

Lady Macbeth was thought of as being “abnormal” or weird just because she wasn’t the stereotypical woman which really reflected how women were thought of back then. Wanting power does not make you a man and Lady Macbeth had no other way to gain power other than through her husband. Nowadays it’s more common for women to be in charge but men are still the more “powerful” ones which makes it harder for women to feel comfortable being a leader. This insecurity has built up over the years and still stays with women all over the world. LIke Lady Macbeth she felt like she couldn’t do anything herself and needed a manly figure to do her deeds. She was culpable for some of the bad choices Macbeth made because she influenced many of his decisions. People often hid things from Lady Macbeth because they thought she was too delicate to hear anything that wasn’t about rainbows and butterflies, which is very frustrating because society says that all females are fragile and dependent to men. This is very degrading to all the women who want to be more than just a stereotypical

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Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a power hungry and vindictive women, whose character is against the stereotypes of a Jacobean woman. Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a deceptive woman, who uses the fact that she is a woman as a weapon. ‘Why, worthy thane, you do unbend your noble strength to think.’ Lady Macbeth is talking to Macbeth.

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This study will focus on the way in which Shakespeare crafts his play and uses dramatic devices in his portrayal of Lady Macbeth in order to confront the gender stereotypes of the time, femininity and the natural order of society. During the early 17th century there was a substantial fear that if women were liberated from their domestic, maternal roles, the historically patriarchal society would unravel. With prevailing challenges of gender such as “When you durst do it, then you were a man” Shakespeare uses the character of Lady Macbeth to transgress the natural limits concomitant with her sex. In order to be able to answer the research question, it is vital to concretely establish the contemporary gender roles and the context of the play.

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Lady Macbeth in the beginning of the play is manipulative, most of the times she manipulates her husband into doing either what she wants or what she thinks he should do. For example, when Macbeth does not want to kill Duncan anymore, Lady Macbeth convinces him by saying “from this time such I account thy love. Art thou afeared to be the same in thine own act and valor as thou art in desire? (I.vii line 38-41). Besides, the audience see Lady Macbeths is influencing her husband’s feelings by she is using her love as a weapon because she is saying do it

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Well Lady Macbeth, who is dead set on having absolute power, disagrees with that. She convinces Macbeth to kill, to cover up the murders, and tries to convince him that these murders will get them to the top. Lady Macbeth calls upon the witches and states, “unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty” (Macbeth Act 1 Scene 5 lines 31 and 31). This shows that while in the pursuit of power, Lady Macbeth wanted it so much that she asked the witches to “unsex” her and make her more like man. But along with that you see the theme of gender roles are uncertain which ties into Lady Macbeth leading Macbeth in this pursuit of power, also giving him the ambition that she wants him to

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“Come, you spirits, That tend on mortal thoughts,/unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/ Of dire cruelty” (1.5.41-44). Lady Macbeth is the personification of male dominance, ruthlessness and violence. She hopes that she could take control of all action. She yearns to be a man and her implication is that she is more masculine than Macbeth. Her drive and violent nature is more akin to men and their masculinity.

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Why does she shame the slightest form of femininity? As the play unfolds, Lady Macbeth is seen stepping on Macbeth’s toes constantly about being weak and unmanly. But does weak mean unmanly? The construct formed from the beginning of time is that if a man is weak he is feminine, this is the self-conflict within Lady Macbeth. “Lady Macbeth consciously attempts to reject her feminine sensibility and adopt a male mentality because she perceives that her society equates feminine qualities with weakness”, explains that Lady Macbeth fears her femininity (“Be bloody, bold, and resolute”: Tragic Action and Sexual Stereotyping in Macbeth).

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