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Manhood Motifs In Shakespeare's Macbeth

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In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the manhood motif is a concept that is tossed around. Manhood is shown in many different aspects no matter what character you look at. The actions of the men in this book are all relative to a true man, but I think the honorable man is determined by how strongly he remains true to himself when he is faced with adversity. “An honorable person is someone who believes in truth and doing the right thing-.” With this definition of honorable, you can distinguish that Macbeth is less honorable than a character like Banquo. In a tragedy like this, honorability is shown when a character is their purest while everything is crashing down around them. In the story, Shakespeare’s idea of honorability is centered around remaining …show more content…

Every smiling face you see isn’t sincere and every helping hand isn’t helping because they care. In Macbeth, deception is an important theme that is displayed. I think deception and “manhood” intertwine to complement each other. How cowardly one much be to deceive someone who trusts them or how honorable one must be to be transparent in their intent. In Mortal Kombat X, while seeking vengeance, a character name Scorpion must go through allies of his. When he approached them, suspecting his intent they became cautious and ready to stop him. Instead of being obscure with his intent, Scorpion simply said “Hand over the withered sorcerer.” Scorpion was completely clear in what he want with justified reasoning. In the midst of being vengeful he was still honorable to his allies. Although it led to a fight, Scorpion didn’t compromise his character to his friends to achieve his goal. I think this transparency is what it means to be a man today. In a society where everything is often secretive and “low-key”, a real man can speak his mind or do what he wants and hold himself responsible. This confidence and unapologetic attitude in what you believe in is what creates a persona of being honorable. Many men cannot say they will stand up and for what they believe in and openly support/advocate for

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In Macbeth and The Mask You Live In, the characteristics of masculinity begins with the questioning or threatening of their manhood, which then leads to successive violence, and lastly, the desperate behavior that occurs when ashamed. In Macbeth, and The Mask You Live In, Shakespeare investigates the connection between a man’s questioning and

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The gentleman is a man who protects not only himself and his welfare, but also his family and everyone close to him, whether it is a military unity, someone from the neighborhood or a dear childhood friend. An honorable man always fulfills his duty to honor a commitment “word of honor” which he has made, even though it could end up in a heated verbal debate, bloodshed or even war. He does not rely on civil government and acts upon his own definition of justice to deal with those who hurt him or his loved ones. Therefore, courage is and martial strength are essential characteristics of honor. Furthermore, to display power and honor to the public eye, a gentleman needs to look the part.

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1080 Words | 5 Pages

Elliot Atwood Shelly Hoffman English IV Honors 14 February 2023 Toxic Masculinity and Macbeth Toxic masculinity, or the strict adherence to masculine ideals at the expense of one’s own health and happiness, is the most fatal flaw present in Macbeth. It surrounds him entirely, guiding his life from one moment to the next. Not a single day passes where Macbeth is free from his fearsome inner turmoil over being and becoming the true man he feels he must be. When looking at the text with a keen eye, it is clear as day that the presence of toxic masculinity within his society, his family, and his own mind is what leads to Macbeth’s tragic downfall.

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Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have different definitions of masculinity. Macbeth sees masculinity as bravery, having control, doing the right thing and having good morals. At the beginning of the story Macbeth has all of these traits, leading him to believe that he is a good and masculine man. Lady Macbeth thinks otherwise. She sees masculinity as boldness, rage, power, and lack of remorse or guilt.

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(An Analysis of the Theme Manhood Throughout Macbeth) What defines a man's manhood is different throughout many cultures. Some cultures define a man buy his wealth and property, by his success. Other cultures define manhood by how well a man fights, his strength and/or courage. This definition of manhood can be found in multiple cultures, including the setting in which Shakespeare wrote Macbeth. But there is a whole other side to what defines a man’s manhood that isn't physical at all, but mental.

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Men were supposed to act as strong fighters, while women were locked in the domestic sphere. These gender roles are prominent in the character developments of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. At first, Macbeth is a strong, heroic solider that shows unbounded courage in battle and loyalty to his king. As the play progresses, he becomes cold, ruthless, and miserable. Lady Macbeth takes on a “manly” role, which is surprising because of how patriarchal the society is.

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834 Words | 4 Pages

In the beginning Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth was a ruthless and masculine woman. She showed the audience that, mentally and emotionally, she was stronger than Macbeth. Although as the story started to continue the audience began to see that she was becoming mentally insane. Throughout the story there was also evidence of shakespeare showing the more masculinity you had the more cuel you became.

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107 Words | 1 Pages

William Shakespeare portrayed the character Lady Macbeth to be extremely ruthless, malicious and manipulative. Thus, being the reason she could easily convince Macbeth to do her will, yet still put on such a convincing performance in front of those who knew nothing of her and her husband’s actions. Lady Macbeth shows her complexity constantly throughout the story when she shares her view-point on masculinity by demasculinizing her own husband, when she strategically plans the murder of the King Duncan, and finally when she finally goes crazy because of the guilt she possesses for not only her own actions but also turning her own husband into a

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402 Words | 2 Pages

There is a strong correlation between violence and masculinity. In the play, Macbeth by Shakespeare, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth constantly battle the challenges of manhood. This can be supported by Lady Macbeth and her “unsex me speech” (Act 1.5.47-61). During the play Macbeth, characters tend to dwell on issues of gender and their roles in society.

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In “Macbeth: The Prisoner of Gender,” Robert Kimbrough explores the topic of manliness in Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth. Kimbrough begins by examining how masculinity and femininity came about in the first place, stating that the origin can best come from the “Judeo-Christian version of God the Creator” (179). The differences between males and females created a hierarchy in Shakespeare’s time, where males were on the top and females were on the bottom. Kimbrough states that the differences betweens the two genders are “matters of the mind,” and believes “Shakespeare sensed that so long as one remains exclusively female or exclusively male, that person will be ... denied human growth" (179). These “matters of the mind” are what Shakespeare tackles

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931 Words | 4 Pages

William Shakespeare, playwright of Macbeth, shows the importance that power and corruption can hold on a person’s humanity. In order to prove the true effect of personal gains, he uses the main character, Macbeth, to show how evil people are willing to become. Personal power has the ability to be essential to greatness, but at the same time is able to destroy a person’s true nature. Believe it or not, Macbeth once was a man of honor. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth was loyal to King Duncan, a strong military leader, and a respected husband.

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1372 Words | 6 Pages

but is then cast aside by her husband at the end. Shakespeare thus presents masculinity in both a positive and negative light. In Act 1, Shakespeare presents Macbeth with admired masculine qualities countered with Lady Macbeth criticising his idiosyncrasies. Lady Macbeth’s definition of a man is disparate to others’.

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632 Words | 3 Pages

Manhood is defined as the state or period of being a man rather than a child. The whole Macbeth play is surrounded by manhood. Macbeth was always trying to prove his manhood he always wanted to be the man and the boss of everything and everyone. He made it so difficult for other people to show their manhood and most of the ones that expressed their manhood were killed. Macbeth was the definition of a “man” wanting to control everyone all the time from the citizens of Scotland to his wife, I believe that in that time period it was so common for men to be controlling and bossy and Macbeth always tried to show that there was no one like him and he was not scared to demonstrate how far he could go to let everyone know that he was the boss, he was willing to kill.

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434 Words | 2 Pages

In this time a man’s masculinity was all that he had and for someone to question it would have almost forced the man to prove himself. In the twenty first century this same idea of being a masculine man still exist. If someone questions a man’s masculinity they most often seek to prove them wrong or prove that they are hyper masculine. In reality Macbeth had no choice to be aggressive because aggression and violence are what identified someone as being a true man, without these traits Macbeth would have been demasculinized. His pride, self-worth, and ambition would not allow that to happen, therefore, to prove himself as a man he killed his friends to meet his own self desires and ended up paying the price for his ambitious

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1959 Words | 8 Pages

“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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