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What Are Gender Stereotypes In Macbeth

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In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth is visited by three witches who tell him it is his destiny to become king, and him and his wife, Lady Macbeth, plot to kill King Duncan in order to fulfill that destiny. Once the king is assassinated, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth each go mentally insane in their own ways, and not in the way that the stereotype of their gender typically states. Each of the Macbeths’s traits do not match the stereotypical traits of males and females, and this causes an extreme amount of confusion for both of them. Gender stereotyping can lead to uncertainty of one’s true identity in society.
Firstly, both sexes have stereotypes placed on them. A gender stereotype is, as said by The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “a generalised view or preconception about attributes or …show more content…

This article discusses what gender stereotypes are, the groups of people they affect the most, and the laws that are to prevent gender stereotyping. The typical male is seen as emotionless, manipulative, intelligent and violent, while the typical female is seen as emotional, kind, helpless and fearful. These gender stereotypes do more harm than good, as often when people do not fit a stereotype, they become confused as to where they truly belong in society. As stated by Robert Kimbrough in his article “Macbeth: The Prisoner of Gender”, people who follow their respective stereotype completely “are prevented from attaining and maintaining a full range of human character traits because of cultural attempts to render some exclusively feminine and some exclusively masculine” (176). In this article, Kimbrough

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Macbeth is a tragedy chronicling a highly esteemed man’s demise, due to his transformation into a ruthless and apathetic human being. Regardless of his tyrannous behaviour, is Macbeth deserving of sympathy because of the external forces that meddled in his affairs? Francesco Aristide Ancona and Mary Ives Thompson attempt to deal with this question and the impact of gender roles in their essay, “ He says/ She says: Shakespeare’s

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Firstly Shakespeare reverses gender roles in the play through expressing each character 's personality. Shakespeare manages to defy conventions through the character Lady Macbeth as he explores the boundaries of what it means to be a “woman.” Her first mental gender transformation occurs after she reads the letter sent to her from Macbeth and hears of King Duncan 's intended visit. In Act 1, Scene 5 she pleads to the spirits, "Come, you spirits. That tend on mortal thoughts.

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As Lady Macbeth goes on throughout the play she shows her masculinity, an example is after Banquos death when she tells those dining to leave that Macbeth is very sick. The dominating boldness of Lady Macbeth to prove herself an equal in the world of men brings about an unyielding inner strength that builds up and overflows onto her influence over other people, predominantly her husband,

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This study will focus on the way in which Shakespeare crafts his play and uses dramatic devices in his portrayal of Lady Macbeth in order to confront the gender stereotypes of the time, femininity and the natural order of society. During the early 17th century there was a substantial fear that if women were liberated from their domestic, maternal roles, the historically patriarchal society would unravel. With prevailing challenges of gender such as “When you durst do it, then you were a man” Shakespeare uses the character of Lady Macbeth to transgress the natural limits concomitant with her sex. In order to be able to answer the research question, it is vital to concretely establish the contemporary gender roles and the context of the play.

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