In the Victorian Era, the stereotypical man was strong-willed, noble, sensitive (to a point), and was not easily misguided when it came to significant decisions. Likewise, women were stereotypically subservient, maternal, and passive. These ideals are warped immensely in his play “Macbeth” as shown in Shakespeare’s main leads. Shakespeare delineates a warped version of Elizabethan stereotypes in his famed play “Macbeth” through the embodiment of the role of a man and how women were portrayed in contrast to how Lady Macbeth conducts herself in this storyline. Within the play of Macbeth, there is the introduction of two types of women, there is Lady Macbeth and there is Lady Macduff. The contrast between these two women is vast; as Lady Macbeth
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Thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it ” (Shakespeare Act 1 Scene 5). However, this predominantly male characteristic is not only present in Lady Macbeth but in the weird sisters as well. According to Banquo, upon seeing them, they donned facial hair in the appearance of beards, thus making it hard for him to interpret that they were women (Shakespeare Act 1 Scene 3). In contrast to this, Lady Macduff was the picturesque woman. She was maternally charged, as she referred to her family quite often in her brief debut in the play. Not only was Lady Macduff maternal in the traditional sense, she also reinforced the Victorian Era ideal that women were weak and unable to protect themselves. This is brought about in the scene where the murderers assail her and her children, she cries “Why then, alas Do I put up that womanly defence To say I have done no harm?” (Shakespeare Act 4 Scene 2). Contradictory to this ideal, Lady Macbeth opens herself up to masculine qualities and even loses some of her more feminine qualities. She cries for the spirits to “unsex” her and to fill her …show more content…
Notwithstanding this argument is the fact that Lady Macbeth’s ambition, which again is said to be a more masculine trait, is one of the key factors that led to the downfall of the Macbeths. She initially pushed Macbeth into killing Duncan, then belittled him for feeling guilty about it. An example of this would be in Act 1 Scene 7 where she calls him “green and pale”, (this is referring to how young girls would get anemia and become very sickly), therefore calling him a young girl. In truth, Lady Macbeth is not a positive use of gender roles to promote social change, neither would be Macbeth. Banquo, Macduff, and Lady Macduff all resemble the classical Victorian gender stereotypes. As “Banquo and Macduff are fathers whose minds are not clouded with misguided ambitions to be King” (Sweetwater Gender Roles Article), and Lady Macduff immediately embracing the thought that her husband had abandoned her leaving her and her children helpless as a birds (Shakespeare Act 4 Scene 2). These characters may serve as a depiction for traditional Victorian stereotypes, but perhaps not to promote gender
Thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it ” (Shakespeare Act 1 Scene 5). However, this predominantly male characteristic is not only present in Lady Macbeth but in the weird sisters as well. According to Banquo, upon seeing them, they donned facial hair in the appearance of beards, thus making it hard for him to interpret that they were women (Shakespeare Act 1 Scene 3). In contrast to this, Lady Macduff was the picturesque woman. She was maternally charged, as she referred to her family quite often in her brief debut in the play. Not only was Lady Macduff maternal in the traditional sense, she also reinforced the Victorian Era ideal that women were weak and unable to protect themselves. This is brought about in the scene where the murderers assail her and her children, she cries “Why then, alas Do I put up that womanly defence To say I have done no harm?” (Shakespeare Act 4 Scene 2). Contradictory to this ideal, Lady Macbeth opens herself up to masculine qualities and even loses some of her more feminine qualities. She cries for the spirits to “unsex” her and to fill her …show more content…
Notwithstanding this argument is the fact that Lady Macbeth’s ambition, which again is said to be a more masculine trait, is one of the key factors that led to the downfall of the Macbeths. She initially pushed Macbeth into killing Duncan, then belittled him for feeling guilty about it. An example of this would be in Act 1 Scene 7 where she calls him “green and pale”, (this is referring to how young girls would get anemia and become very sickly), therefore calling him a young girl. In truth, Lady Macbeth is not a positive use of gender roles to promote social change, neither would be Macbeth. Banquo, Macduff, and Lady Macduff all resemble the classical Victorian gender stereotypes. As “Banquo and Macduff are fathers whose minds are not clouded with misguided ambitions to be King” (Sweetwater Gender Roles Article), and Lady Macduff immediately embracing the thought that her husband had abandoned her leaving her and her children helpless as a birds (Shakespeare Act 4 Scene 2). These characters may serve as a depiction for traditional Victorian stereotypes, but perhaps not to promote gender