Lady Macbeth Questions Macbeths Manhood

Macbeth-Shakespeare (in-depth analysis if you are so inclined.)

• Lady Macbeth Questions Macbeth's Manhood
• Macbeth Manhood Quote
• Masculinity Quotes Macbeth
• Macbeth Questions And Answers

Lady Macbeth, outraged, calls him a coward and questions his manhood: “When you durst do it,” she says, “then you were a man” (1.7.49). He asks her what will happen if they fail; she promises that as long as they are bold, they will be successful. Lady Macbeth knows that Macbeth is a good man, a worthy, noble, good soldier. But she feels that he is too full of the 'milk of human kindness' (i know its meant to be a good thing, but the is the. The Downfall of MacbethThe Downfall of MacbethMacbeth's love for Lady Macbeth, in William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth, caused Macbethto feel the need to prove his manhood, which eventually lead to his downfall. Macbethwas not secure in his manhood, so he felt the need to prove himself to Lady Macbeth. The second most developed character is Lady Macbeth, Macbeth 's wife. The third most well developed is Banquo, Macbeth 's friend. Banquo and Lady Macbeth play very important roles in Macbeth 's life. Macbeth is plagued with paranoia and a thirst for power. Macbeth fears that Banquo has discovered his unclean hands and he will turn him in. The guilt over being a party to murder drives Lady Macbeth to madness and eventually suicide. Furthermore, the use of Lady Macbeth in this way may be a reference to the Book of Genesis and the story of Adam and Eve. Macbeth is inspired to murder by his wife in the same way Eve convinced Adam to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Macbeth’s distorted concept of manhood coupled with Lady Macbeth’s distorted concept of manhood and womanhood eventually leads to Macbeth’s downfall and Lady Macbeth’s suicide. Shakespeare uses the technique of gender bending in Macbeth, where a woman will possess manly qualities and a man will posses woman qualities.

Lady Macbeth Questions Macbeth's Manhood

During the time period in which Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, women were uneducated, they were forced to act submissively and never express their opinions. Shakespeare, by using several female characters with powerful roles, made a complete turnaround from the norm as he went against expectations for the time period. Women drive the plot because of the power Shakespeare gives them. The Witches and Lady Macbeth hold this power, but manipulate it in dissimilar ways. Their power gives them the upper hand, and drives members of each sex to insanity. Lady Macbeth and the witches, together, call into question what it means to be a man, and also, they solidify the powers men possess.

As already mentioned, women during this time period were taught submissive behavior. However, Lady Macbeth has her own idea of how women should behave, which is far removed from how women typically acted. At the outset, Lady Macbeth receives a letter from Macbeth that states his promotion as thane of Cawdor in Act 1 Scene 5, and explains his confrontation with the witches, telling her they have prophesized him as the future king of Scotland, and at that moment her abnormal female identity is revealed simply by her ability to read. The significance of her literacy resides in the fact that the majority of women during the 1600s were unable to read. That Lady Macbeth has the knowledge to read sets her apart from all other females, and Shakespeare symbolizes her power through that ability. Her power stems from her ability to read and her power continues to grow as her ambitions grow.
After she reads the letter she immediately questions Macbeth’s ability to fill a position as king, saying he lacks the “wickedness” needed for the role in Act 1 Scene 5. She sheds light on Macbeth’s political weakness, which foreshadows his downfall. In doing so she breaks social standards for women. Most women would not have questioned their husbands’ authority, but Lady Macbeth does not hesitate to question Macbeths. Her attitude in this scene triggers her gender role for the rest of the play, which is domineering. Lady Macbeth uses her gender to seek out her ambitions. She continuously questions Macbeth’s manhood to get what she wants.

As the play continues her domineering personality takes hold. In her soliloquy in Line 39 of Act 1 Scene5 she asks to be “unsexed,” as her ambitions are proliferated by the note and being “unsexed” suggests her desire to climb the social ladder by shedding herself of femaleness. When she talks the letter over with Macbeth, she uses firm dialogue, telling him to plot against Duncan like a “serpent,” but remain like “the innocent flower,” as she puts forth a bold effort to coerce Macbeth into killing Duncan, which would render Macbeth king. This differs greatly from the submissive roles played by women in other Shakespearean tragedies, and also represents a strong female identity, one whose ambitions speak for her obsession for power. Her ambitions, combined with her power as a woman, enable her to control Macbeth. In subsequent scenes, she questions his manhood aside from her belief of his inability as a king.

As the two of them plot against the king, Macbeth reveals his hesitance for killing Duncan in Act 1 Scene 7. Lady Macbeth responds to Macbeth’s fickle mind by calling him a “coward” if he does not perform the treasonous act against Duncan, and milking it by glorifying the crown and what comes with it: nobility, high class and power. As she puts Macbeth’s manhood to the test he falters, and gives in to her by saying “I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none” in (Lines 46 through 47) of the same scene. Her attempt at questioning his manhood succeeds. Macbeth’s manliness is overridden in this part of the play because of Lady Macbeth’s power. Macbeth questions the success of their plan because he fears they will get caught. /van-gogh-font-free.html. Lady Macbeth, however, never budges, which leaves Macbeth with only one choice, to follow through, not because he absolutely has to, but because a “woman” is questioning his manhood, and if he becomes the less courageous of the two he will be deemed a coward. Such a man in this position has to maintain a dominant role. If he did not carry out his duty as Lady Macbeth sees it, he would possess the submissive role known to women during the time of the play. So, he kills Duncan and becomes king and begins to have restless nights sleep with a voice saying to him “sleep no more, Macbeth does murder sleep’—innocent sleep…” in (Act 2, Scene 2, Lines 33 through 34.)

Lady Macbeth has no sympathy for his restlessness. Instead, she attacks his manhood again by saying that he will reduce his strength by dreaming and hearing voices and she tells him that washing their hands will free them from their deeds. At this point, both of their ambitions equal that of one another however, this equivalence came about through Lady Macbeth’s “unsexed or objective goals, which would require no gender. The play would have been significantly different had Macbeth been married to a submissive character known to many of Shakespeare’s other tragedies, such as Lady Montague. Both of their ambitions are maximized by each other’s presence, but Lady Macbeth initiates their ambitions from the start. If Macbeth had been married to Lady Montague, his manhood would have gone untested, and perhaps he would not have killed the king. The comparison of Lady Macbeth to Lady Montague in Romeo & Juliet depicts the obscene amount of power Lady Macbeth holds. Lady Macbeth has a few female witch accomplices to guide her domineering sexuality along.

The bearded witches also play a very masculine role, along side of Lady Macbeth, and Shakespeare even provided them with beards. The witches’ prophecies mirror the ambitions of Lady Macbeth, but in contrast, the witches’ prophecies hold even greater value than Lady Macbeth’s ambitions because they are concrete, they cannot be changed. This proves detrimental by the plays end because Banquo, who never tries to alter his fate, reaps the benefits of the witches’ prophecy. The witches have an even more masculine role than Macbeth, due to their power to see into the future and reveal the course of one’s life. Their prophecy leads to Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s insanity. They have the power to make nothing seem normal, and they control the fate of Macbeth via their prophecies. Macbeth certainly holds no power of the like, and extending the comparison further, he barely passes the masculinity test of his wife, and the witches, from the beginning, have Lady Macbeth’s approval in the sense that they are providing her with the power she wants when she wants it. Lady Macbeth has many needs that virtually no one can provide her. But the witches feed her ambition, and she turns that around on Macbeth. If the witches had not revealed their prophecy there would have been no reason for either of them to plot against Duncan.

The witches’ power presents itself again in Act 5. Along with being assured that no man born of a woman can slay him, Macbeth is also assured that he cannot be slain until Birnam Wood remove to Dunisane because the witches’ prophecy says so. His assumptions lead him to march into battle fearless, which leads to his death. He becomes very trustworthy of his people much like Duncan was at the beginning of the play before his death. The plays gender issues follow through until Macbeth’s death in Act 5 Scene 10 and continues through Banquo’s bloodline when Malcolm becomes king. Malcolm gains access to kingship via Macduff slaying Macbeth. Interestingly, Macduff was stripped of his connections to womanhood because of his c-sectioned birth, and Shakespeare purposely did that to solidify the power of manhood during the 1600s. The only access to the throne was by way of manliness, and not via anything tied to a woman.

Lady Macbeth’s power reached its final point in Act 5 Scene 1, and ends up taking a back seat to Macbeth’s power in Act 5 Scene 5 in his soliloquy in lines 16 through 27 where he expresses little sorrow for her death. The Doctor assumes a feminine role in Act 5 Scene 1 Line 69 saying, “I think, but dare not speak.” Lady Macbeth’s power, at that point, had become so strong that male characters were acting in ways that were expected of women. Her power, along with her insanity, left the Doctor dumbfounded. Men expected women to think but not speak and when Shakespeare used this metaphor, he blatantly illustrated Lady Macbeth’s “unsexed” identity. Macbeth’s power finally dominates Lady Macbeths in the final act when he becomes fearless on the battlefield, but his fearlessness comes from women having assured him that nothing will happen to him. For example, the witches’ prophecy makes him believe he will have nothing to worry about in battle, and anyone born of woman, he feels, cannot slay him. microsoft frontpage 2003 free download for mac

At the plays end, Macbeth displays how women are typically regarded. He uses birth to show that women weaken men because they are born of them. This presents the strongest gender theme in the play. Macbeth feels that he cannot be beaten in war because of his detachment from any feminine qualities, which his enemies have to their disadvantage. However, Macduff was stripped of his ties to femininity by way of a c-section and Macbeth is slain by him. On the other hand, he has no problem slaying Young Siward. In Act 5 Scene 7 Line 14, after slaying Young Siward he said, “Thou wast born of woman, but swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn brandished by man that’s of a woman born.” The resemblance of gender here is strong in that no living thing born of womanhood had the power to destroy the king. This also means that during the 1600s, according to society, there was no woman fit to be a king. Shakespeare symbolized this idea through Macduff. If someone born of womanhood had slain Macbeth, the submissive role expected of females would not have appeared as strong, and it would have suggested that women have access to the throne by bearing children. This presents a barrier for women’s access to royalty, and also hints at the cause of Lady Macbeth’s downfall. She had too much power. She plagued Scotland with the use of her gender, which was the source of her power. Lady Macbeth was partly responsible for the corruption of Scotland, which speaks volumes about her powerful use of sexuality.

From Act 1 Scene 5 on Macbeth uses gender roles to drive the plot. Lady Macbeth uses her sexuality to coerce Macbeth into killing Duncan by questioning his manhood. She continues to use this to her advantage. Based on expectations of gender roles during the time, Macbeth had to fulfill his duties as a man, and Lady Macbeth feeds her desires from those expectations. The witches’ prophecies also display the power of women’s sexuality. Their bearded faces, along with their prophecies that hold true, render them female characters with utmost power. Kingship in this society was unattainable if one had any ties to womanhood. Women were simply not capable of having access to the throne. Act 5 Scene 5 Lines 14 through 16 say it best, “thou wast born of woman, but swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn brandished by man that of a woman born.”

The URI to TrackBack this entry is: https://blakewilson.wordpress.com/2007/12/06/macbeth-shakespeare/trackback/

1. very interesting.
   i’m adding in RSS Reader

2. Make peace, not war! Autodesk design suite premium download.

3. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

4. THANKS HEAPS! It was exactly what i was looking for!
   Cheers

5. It was quite interesting but how can you say thatthis was a summary!!!, it took me 10 minutes to read it.

6. Thanks to much, u completed my GSCE Coursework 4 me dude !
   Luv Ya – x

7. thank you soooo much!
   this is very helpful, i am working on a essay of macbeth and using the traditional roles of woman, and comparing them to lady macbeth and lady macduff, and this was very very helpful ^-^
   you write so well, keep up the good work!

8. This was a very helpful source for me and my lit. analysis paper!

9. ahh this helped my uni exam revision. cheers.

Macbeth Manhood Quote

Masculinity Quotes Macbeth

Macbeth Questions And Answers