Manhood In Macbeth

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In one of Shakespeare's most famous plays, Macbeth, some argue that the whole play is about a man and contrary to what you’re thinking, not Macbeth himself. A brief overview is simply this: Macbeth receives three prophecies from three strange witches and in an effort to gain all power he becomes an mad serial killer and eventually dies in the end. However, throughout the play we learn a lot more about being human than just not being greedy. We learn what it means to be a man. Macbeth is a prime example of what it means not to be a real man while those he murders usually display exemplar signs of character. In William Shakespeare's Macbeth, the theme of manhood is very prevalent throughout acts I, II, III and IV.
In William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth, act I, the theme of manhood can be …show more content…

The biggest event that happens in act II of Macbeth is the murder of king Duncan. While no one knows that it was really Macbeth that murdered the king, Macbeth does admit to killing the grooms. His excuse for doing so, will be that he’s a man. When Macduff asks Macbeth why he killed them he says, “Who can be wise, amazed, temp'rate, and furious, loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man. Th' expedition of my violent love outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan, his silver skin laced with his golden blood, and his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature for ruin’s wasteful entrance; there, the murderers, steeped in the colors of their trade, their daggers unmannerly breeched with gore. Who could refrain, that had a heart to love, and in that heart courage to make ’s love known?”(Act II, Scene 3, Lines 109-117) He basically says that because he’s a man and he loved Duncan that he couldn’t just leave his two murderers alive. This example also goes back to the idea that if you’re a man you have to be a good warrior. A real man, to Macbeth, is defined by how well he can kill

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