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What Are Gender Roles In Macbeth

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Macbeth is an awesome play. It was created by William Shakespeare in the 11th century of Scotland. The play was believed to be first done in the 1600s. Shakespeare says that women can be more powerful about gender roles because women have the audacity to kill and have more guts than men.
In act I of the play, Macbeth, who is the main protagonist is chosen by the witches to become the king. “Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under 't. He that 's coming Must be provided for: and you shall put
This night 's great business into my dispatch;” (Act I. Scene v. Lines 67-69). In this piece of evidence, Lady Macbeth is convincing Macbeth to kill the King. Lady Macbeth is proving to Macbeth that she can be more of a man than he is which swaps gender roles a lot in the play. Another piece of evidence states, “thee, my dearest partner of greatness, …show more content…

Act III of the play is with even more gender roles that change as well. “O, proper stuff! This is the very painting of your fear. This is the air-drawn dagger which you said Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts, Impostors to true fear, would well become A woman 's story at a winter 's fire, Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!” (Act III. Scene iv. Lines 61-65). Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth that he is still a coward and a so called “old woman” in which he doesn’t have the guts to be a man like Lady Macbeth. This again proves that Lady Macbeth is more of a manly figure than Macbeth is. “I am a man again. Pray you, sit still.” (3.4.20). In this quote, Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost from when Macbeth had him killed. Macbeth tells the audience that he is now a man again for what he has done.
Act IV has very minimal statements about gender roles since this act is very short. “But I must also feel like a man.” (Act IV. Scene 3. Line 224). Macduff talks about his manliness and to avenge the murder of his family. Doesn’t have to do with Lady Macbeth, but has to do with the manliness of

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In William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, different constructs of masculinity are defined and explored for significant purposes: to identify stereotypes; to contrast characters that conform to archetypes; and to reveal the consequences of adhering to social norms. In act IV, the juxtaposition between Macbeth–an unfeeling man–and Macduff–a passionate man, exemplifies how emotions power an individual. In the scene, when Ross tells Macduff that his family has been slaughtered, his reaction is full of grief, to which Malcolm responds that he should “dispute it like a man,”(IV.iii.219) or in other words to resist his emotions. However, while Macduff agrees to do so, he points out that “[he] must also feel it as a man”(IV.iii.221) and “play the woman

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She suggests that Macbeth is too much of a coward to go with the plot to kill King Duncan and could be more of one if he did. The roles switch as Lady Macbeth takes control of the situation rather than Macbeth. Macbeth would be seen as embarrassing to the Jacobean audience as he lets a woman push him around to do things. Men were seen as the head of the family while women could not own any property. This demonstrates the roles switch as Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth and her newly gained strength and authority coming into

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The male characters in Macbeth all carry a sense of masculinity with them that they often used to reject femininity. There is a masculine warrior mindset when it comes to these characters and they want to separate themselves from femininity as much as possible. Even when terrible things happen such as families being slaughtered, characters are told to convert their grief to anger (Lutz 195). Throughout most of Macbeth, “the play’s male characters consistently espouse a masculinity that disavows or rejects femininity or effeminacy. Macbeth’s tragedy, in this view, is that he cannot fully separate himself from femininity in the way his masculine warrior ideology demands” (195).

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But despite his constant fears, Macbeth nevertheless decided to bring it upon himself. Macbeth was too worried his masculinity would be belittled if he did not kill king Duncan and rise to power. One of Macbeth's greatest flaws was his own insecurity. In act one, Lady Macbeth is challenging Macbeth's masculinity, “When you durst do it, then you were a man;/And to be more than what you were, you would/ Be so much more the man”(1.7. 56-58).

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Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, focuses on the tumultuous events that surround a regicide. Despite being the shortest of Shakespeare’s plays, in his critical study of the play A. C. Bradley concludes that due to its vehement nature the audience is left with an impression “not of brevity but of speed” . The principal female character of Lady Macbeth is arguably one of his most contentious. Consumed with intense passion, ambition and greed she challenges the subservient role of the traditional Elizabethan woman. She has disturbed, horrified and intrigued both contemporary and modern audiences alike through her powerful diction.

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(IV. III. 260). He wants Macduff to understand that he has to do his deed like a man. It can fail if he back out of his plan at the last moment or he might get hurt himself but the person he is after [Macbeth]. Macduff response showed he took that sentence as a challenge or

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In their defence they often reference to her small talks with Macbeth, where her opinions often surpass his (1; 7; 72-74). But, it’s clear that Lady Macbeth is no feminist lady. Throughout the play, she is viewed by the audience as a selfish female character, consumed with ambition to successfully bring the witches prophecy of Macbeth becoming king into reality. Unlike, Macbeth who tends to carry out his deeds holily, Lady Macbeths ambition completely disgraces the definition of feminist, believing regicide of faithful leader King Duncan is the way to gain power. Macbeths strong values, belies and attitudes of King Duncan, created a series of doubts towards Lady Macbeths idea, since.

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Not only women here have the gender roles. Macduff's family is killed and it is looked down on when men cry, yet here it is more emotionally taken by the audience than when Lady Macbeth gender roles are flipped. Having Macduff be manly man yet cry at the death of his family makes him more of a ‘well rounded character’ and lady macbeth's character is more ‘damaged’. The end of Lady Macbeth's power left so broken he had little response to it.

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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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With this in mind, if a man couldn’t do something a woman can, he was a disgrace; Lady Macbeth is taunting Macbeth with the gender gap, which makes him want to prove he’s more masculine and can keep it together. Even though, Lady Macbeth is viewed as a manipulative character, towards the end, she changes and shows signs of remorse/regret, which is not like her character. Lady Macbeth begins to feel remorseful because she has made an outright killing machine out of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth starts to ask herself “The thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?

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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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Macbeth is hesitant to murder but Lady Macbeth questions his manhood and tells him how much more of a man he will be if he would kill

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Well Lady Macbeth, who is dead set on having absolute power, disagrees with that. She convinces Macbeth to kill, to cover up the murders, and tries to convince him that these murders will get them to the top. Lady Macbeth calls upon the witches and states, “unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty” (Macbeth Act 1 Scene 5 lines 31 and 31). This shows that while in the pursuit of power, Lady Macbeth wanted it so much that she asked the witches to “unsex” her and make her more like man. But along with that you see the theme of gender roles are uncertain which ties into Lady Macbeth leading Macbeth in this pursuit of power, also giving him the ambition that she wants him to

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“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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She also tells him “ when you durst do it than you are a man” so as well as manipulating him she is being threatening as she is saying unless he does it , she doesn’t’t view him as a man. The fact that lady Macbeth is questioning her husband’s masculinity and talking to him like that the audience would be appalled and that fact that she was manipulating Macbeth it could have been seen like she was trying to control him which would have been disapproved by an Elizabethan audience as women were under the control of their

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