Throughout Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a recurring theme is gender roles. For the duration of Macbeth the idea of how males and females behave are consistent. Macbeth derives its drama from the character’s ability to exploit one another based on their short comings in their particular role, either as a man or a woman. Examining the role of gender and its parallel with manipulation throughout Macbeth, we see the importance each male character places on his masculinity. Lady Macbeth contributes to stereotyping gender roles as a result of her views on masculinity and her ability to manipulate Macbeth through them. Gender roles are used as a form of manipulation by many characters, including Lady Macbeth, as a means of exploiting another character.
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This shows the large amount of importance every male character places on their gender status. After Lady Macbeth shames Macbeth into murdering Duncan from this technique, Macbeth uses the same tactics in gender manipulation to convince the Murderers to kill Banquo. This is seen when Macbeth says “Now, if you have a station in the file, not i ' th ' worst rank of manhood, say’t, and I will put that business in your bosoms” (3.1.101-103) In this quote Macbeth tells the Murderers that if they are a good man of high rank, they will kill Banquo. The Murderers respond to this by defending their man hood when saying “I am one, my liege” (3.1.108) which shows killing Banquo is a despite attempt in maintaining their manhood. From Macbeth using guilt to manipulate the Murderers into assassinating Banquo the importance of manly hood is shown again. Another case of manipulating through gender is seen in the manner in which Malcom tells Macduff to grieve the death of his family. Upon learning his family has all been killed by Macbeth, Macduff is told to “Dispute it like a man” (4.3.222) by Malcom. This shows that Macduff must seek revenge on Macbeth to regain his manly status. Macduff reply’s “But I must also feel it like a man” (4.3.224-225) showing that Macduff will not be told he con not grieve his …show more content…
Shakespeare presents the witch’s as being both male and female as a result of the witch’s beard. The immediate effect of this physical characteristic is that since the witches resemble men they inherit man’s dominant power along with all the stigma of being a man. However Banquo shows the true effects of the beards when saying “You should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so” (1.3.43-45) this quote shows how since the gender of the witches is unable to be determine from their physical characteristics, as they have both male and female looks, they are free from any gender stereotypes. It is from the inability to interpret the gender of the witch’s that one of their senses of power comes from. Due to their lack of singular gender the witches are free from any gender
This shows the large amount of importance every male character places on their gender status. After Lady Macbeth shames Macbeth into murdering Duncan from this technique, Macbeth uses the same tactics in gender manipulation to convince the Murderers to kill Banquo. This is seen when Macbeth says “Now, if you have a station in the file, not i ' th ' worst rank of manhood, say’t, and I will put that business in your bosoms” (3.1.101-103) In this quote Macbeth tells the Murderers that if they are a good man of high rank, they will kill Banquo. The Murderers respond to this by defending their man hood when saying “I am one, my liege” (3.1.108) which shows killing Banquo is a despite attempt in maintaining their manhood. From Macbeth using guilt to manipulate the Murderers into assassinating Banquo the importance of manly hood is shown again. Another case of manipulating through gender is seen in the manner in which Malcom tells Macduff to grieve the death of his family. Upon learning his family has all been killed by Macbeth, Macduff is told to “Dispute it like a man” (4.3.222) by Malcom. This shows that Macduff must seek revenge on Macbeth to regain his manly status. Macduff reply’s “But I must also feel it like a man” (4.3.224-225) showing that Macduff will not be told he con not grieve his …show more content…
Shakespeare presents the witch’s as being both male and female as a result of the witch’s beard. The immediate effect of this physical characteristic is that since the witches resemble men they inherit man’s dominant power along with all the stigma of being a man. However Banquo shows the true effects of the beards when saying “You should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so” (1.3.43-45) this quote shows how since the gender of the witches is unable to be determine from their physical characteristics, as they have both male and female looks, they are free from any gender stereotypes. It is from the inability to interpret the gender of the witch’s that one of their senses of power comes from. Due to their lack of singular gender the witches are free from any gender