The Collapse Of Gender Roles In Lady Macbeth By William Shakespeare

In the play ‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth is portrayed as an assertive, power-hungry woman. Yet, by the end of the play Lady Macbeth is so mentally weak that she has a complete collapse—there is a drastic difference in appearance versus reality. In Act 1 Scene 5, as Lady Macbeth receives a letter from Macbeth she is seemingly calculating,dominant and malicious. She says the ‘raven himself is hoarse’ which has connotations of death and witchcraft, her words fit with the theme of the supernatural and deceit. In Lady Macbeth’s following soliloquy, she describes her ‘fell purpose’ or intentions of making Macbeth king and maintaining power in the most gruesome way. First she bids the spirits to ‘unsex her’, to ‘thicken her blood’,

When performing this, the direction would have to make a choice as to whether this is a hallucination or a trick masterminded by the witches. Upon seeing this, Lady Macbeth questions Macbeth's masculinity, “Are you a man?” Clearly, gender is out of its traditional order and this could be because Shakespeare was a protofeminist. This disruption of gender roles is presented through Lady Macbeth's superior role and control in the marriage; on many occasions, she rules her husband and dictates his actions. However, she also says ‘You lack the season of all natures,sleep.’ which foreshadows her future torment. In terms of proxemics, the direction could position Lady Macbeth close to Macbeth as this would help foreshadow that Lady Macbeth’s outbursts are the last scene before her own mental health quickly declines. It could be the case that she is fearful of Macbeth’s vision of Banquo and that her own guilt seeps through her hard exterior. Lady Macbeth says ‘Out damned spot’, as she tries to wash the imaginary blood from her hands in Act 4. Even today, we still refer to those who have committed a heinous crime as having "blood on their hands," and while Lady Macbeth's hands are actually clean, her guilt has metaphorically stained them. A direction could make the choice as to make it more psychological or supernatural in origin as well, but this is uncertain. She is mentally conflicted and this reveals her true nature, the juxtaposition of how she acts with Macbeth as opposed to her real emotions highlights this. She uses her hard exterior to cover up any feelings of remorse,fear or