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Macbeth Gender Roles Quotes

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Gender Roles has been developed throughout Act 1 and Act 2 by the characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. In Act 1, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth says “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; Stop up the access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature, Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between, The effect and it. Come to my woman's breasts, And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, Wherever, in your sightless substances, You wait on nature's mischief.” This quote is saying that Macbeth is not capable of killing Duncan and to take away Lady Macbeth’s ability to feel guilt and that no pity can prevent her cruel actions from …show more content…

Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead, Are but as pictures; 'tis the eye of childhood, That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal, For it must seem their guilt.” In this part of the scene, Lady Macbeth is calling Macbeth a coward and to give her the dagger. Later on in Act 2, Macduff says, “ O gentle lady, Tis not for you to hear what I can speak. The repetition, in a woman's ear, Would murder as it fell.” He is saying that he cannot tell her what happened, and if she would find out, it would kill her. Lady Macbeth “finds out” what happened and she pretends to faint, taking advantage of gender roles and acting innocent. In Act 2, the theme of gender roles is developed even more by the character, Lady Macbeth. She is shown to be more ambitious and brave than her husband. When Macbeth comes out of Duncan's chambers with the dagger, he is scared and says that his hands are covered with the blood of the man he just murdered. Lady Macbeth calls him a coward and then goes to the servants and smears the blood on them so they will look guilty. Later, when Macduff is telling people that Duncan has been murdered, Lady Macbeth uses the gender roles to her advantage and she acts like she is surprised and in shock after

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In act 1, scene 7, “ 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”, this quotes tells the audience that lady macbeth is questioning Macbeth manhood, it remind present audience not only about the present, but this more of the past, due to view changing over time. This quotes reflects both the Elizabethan era, and Jacobean era, due to it still being in the period of time that England was still prioritizing men over women, and due to the fact that they believed that men were more stronger than women, they believed that men should not be ruled by emotion, rather ambition. In act 1 scene 5, “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. Stop up th' access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between Th' effect and it.

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