Masculinity In Macbeth

Within gothic texts in literary history, leading female characters tend to defy societal gender normalities, contrary to what society is accustomed to. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Euripides’ Medea, the authors challenge the patriarchal system of their times through the distinctive masculine characteristics of Lady Macbeth and Medea. During Elizabethan and Greek theatre, women were conventionalized to be soft, gentle, and weak compared to men, who ought to be strong heroic figures. As powerful female characters are hard to come by in the time period, it is critical to examine how Lady Macbeth and Medea, a sorceress, exhibit masculinity through their evil and fierce characters within a supernatural atmosphere. My paper argues that both Shakespeare

Lady Macbeth takes on the characteristics often associated with men of the time. For example, in Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy, she reads a letter which tells her of the witches' prophecy, “yet do I fear thy nature, / It is too full o’th’ milk of human kindness” (Shakespeare I,v, 15-16). Lady Macbeth uses “milk” to symbolize womanhood, implying that Macbeth has too many female characteristics to be in power. Through the forces of the supernatural, particularly the witches, Lady Macbeth is depicted as a megalomaniac, a feature usually displayed by a male character. Hence, the supernatural causes each character’s true nature to become evident. Furthermore, with the witches’ prophecies as a weapon and as a form of justification for their evil actions, Lady Macbeth pushes Macbeth about his manliness and accuses him of not being man enough. Moreover, we can depict how Lady Macbeth renounces her womanhood to kill Duncan when she

Like Lady Macbeth, she does not fit into the conformities of men or women. Although her actions are unjustifiable, they demonstrate her strength and determination, characteristics that are commonly known to be a man’s. This strength is evident well before the play's events, as Medea is responsible for Jason’s acquisition of the Golden Fleece. Medea clarifies that she is the heroic figure who holds the powers; likewise, to Lady Macbeth, Medea critiques Jason’s masculinity when saying, “Vilest of creatures! This is the worst thing I can say about your so-called manliness (Euripides 465-466). With that, Medea depicts how Jason is in no way a man but relatively nothing more than a creature, while she is technically a woman of the supernatural. We further see this when Medea says, “But my spirit is stronger than my will to resist, / Spirit, the greatest cause of evil for men” (Europides 1079-1080). This depicts Medea’s thumos, the supernatural spirit within her that she cannot control. In fact, thumos is a trait usually found in male heroes; however, Medea contests that stereotype. Even Jason cannot come to describe Medea as a human but rather a lioness, “Jason: No Greek woman would ever have dared / This. Yet I ranked you over them, and married / You, a wife who hated and ruined me, / A lioness not a woman” (Euripides 1339-1342). Contrarily, Medea describes her supernatural powers as