One can argue that throughout the tragedy of Macbeth, many of the decisions the Scottish lord makes are based on his wife questioning his masculinity if he fails to decide in her favor, thus skewing his definition of manliness. The definition of manliness is constantly questions and changed. Jarold Ramsey, the author of The Perversion of Manliness in Macbeth, states that Lady Macbeth is the one who instigates the distortion of what is manly by, “calling Macbeth’s manhood (in the narrowly sexual sense) into question”. By pursuing his desire for power and to ascend the throne, Macbeth, in the eyes of Lady Macbeth is continually redefining his manliness distorting rationale and becoming less human. This power struggle and identity crisis leads to his renouncing all that that would be considered human in resemblance and all that is moral to embody “aggressive masculinity.” The three witches see this and translate it into their own words as “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (I.i). This translate to Macbeth as something will change, but the true meaning lies within the distortion of the meaning of masculinity. It displays that man becomes animal and animal becomes man. In scene V, Lady Macbeth contemplates whether her husband’s lack of manliness is holding him back from his true desires. She says …show more content…
Thou wouldst be great,/ Art not without ambition, but without/ The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly,/ That wouldst thou holily-wouldst not play false/ And yet would wrongly