Are there actions which men are capable of doing and woman are truly incapable of doing? In the society in which Shakespeare, himself, lived, in Medieval England, in which the characters in Macbeth lived, and even in our own society in America today, there are numerous ideas about what people should or should not do based off of their gender. For example, women have been and often are still expected to do “ladylike” things, such as cooking or taking care of children, whereas men are expected to do more “manly” things, such as working or fighting. These gender roles are shown throughout Shakespeare’s Macbeth through the character Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth performs countless actions that go against the gender roles in her that her society
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Speaking out loud, to herself, while alone, she says, “Unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood”(1.5.48-50). Lady Macbeth believes that, due to the fact that she is a female, she is incapable of even planning this act of murder. Although she leaves the actual act of killing to her husband, who, even though is “full of the milk of human kindness”, is still more capable of committing this act than she. She believes that, just in order to plan the murder, she must be “unsex[ed]” and lose her womanliness, which, deep in her mind, renders her incapable of doing this. It is interesting to note that she says this while completely alone, emphasizing the fact that she actually believes this within herself, and is not just saying this to conform in the minds of the people around her. Another instance in which Lady Macbeth shows her subconscious conformity to the gender roles in her society occurs when she is instructing Macbeth on how to act when he is greeting Duncan as Duncan enters the city. She advises Macbeth to act incredibly nice and welcoming and to “look like th’ innocent flower, But be the serpent under ‘t”(1.6.76-77). In this context, the flower is not only a symbol for femininity, but also for the female genitalia, just as the snake is a phallic symbol. She wants …show more content…
Although in her conscious mind she does accomplish this goal of breaking free of these gender roles by plotting the murder of Duncan, she still subconsciously conformed to gender roles in the way that she went about planning the murder. These gender roles have been so deeply ingrained in her mind by the society that she lives in that, no matter how she tries to superficially break free of them, they will always control her in a way that she does not even realize. In the end, the guilt of murdering Duncan overcomes her and she ends up dying from it. On the outside she could flout these gender roles by acting masculine, but deep down she still conformed to them, and could not take her guilt after the murder. It is interesting that she showed this first by sleepwalking; when one is asleep they do not know what they are doing, just as Lady Macbeth didn’t understand that she was still under the control of gender roles. What Shakespeare may be trying to say is that these gender roles have been so deeply ingrained in our society and in us since birth, that there is almost no way to truly escape them. We can completely flout them on the outside, but on the inside we are still completely under their control. Shakespeare is attempting to tell us that these gender roles are not justified, but the
Speaking out loud, to herself, while alone, she says, “Unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood”(1.5.48-50). Lady Macbeth believes that, due to the fact that she is a female, she is incapable of even planning this act of murder. Although she leaves the actual act of killing to her husband, who, even though is “full of the milk of human kindness”, is still more capable of committing this act than she. She believes that, just in order to plan the murder, she must be “unsex[ed]” and lose her womanliness, which, deep in her mind, renders her incapable of doing this. It is interesting to note that she says this while completely alone, emphasizing the fact that she actually believes this within herself, and is not just saying this to conform in the minds of the people around her. Another instance in which Lady Macbeth shows her subconscious conformity to the gender roles in her society occurs when she is instructing Macbeth on how to act when he is greeting Duncan as Duncan enters the city. She advises Macbeth to act incredibly nice and welcoming and to “look like th’ innocent flower, But be the serpent under ‘t”(1.6.76-77). In this context, the flower is not only a symbol for femininity, but also for the female genitalia, just as the snake is a phallic symbol. She wants …show more content…
Although in her conscious mind she does accomplish this goal of breaking free of these gender roles by plotting the murder of Duncan, she still subconsciously conformed to gender roles in the way that she went about planning the murder. These gender roles have been so deeply ingrained in her mind by the society that she lives in that, no matter how she tries to superficially break free of them, they will always control her in a way that she does not even realize. In the end, the guilt of murdering Duncan overcomes her and she ends up dying from it. On the outside she could flout these gender roles by acting masculine, but deep down she still conformed to them, and could not take her guilt after the murder. It is interesting that she showed this first by sleepwalking; when one is asleep they do not know what they are doing, just as Lady Macbeth didn’t understand that she was still under the control of gender roles. What Shakespeare may be trying to say is that these gender roles have been so deeply ingrained in our society and in us since birth, that there is almost no way to truly escape them. We can completely flout them on the outside, but on the inside we are still completely under their control. Shakespeare is attempting to tell us that these gender roles are not justified, but the