Women In Macbeth

Shakespeare’s tragedy of Macbeth tells a play of a king who starts off good but halfway through (Act 3) the play, he becomes evil. This play is both feminist and masculine. Shakespeare focused mostly on men, and very few women in this play. For the few women that are mentioned in the play, they do not have jobs nor do they do much and they are all controlled by their husbands. All actions done to women is because of the men. Also, this is play is masculine. Macbeth toward the end and even the beginning of the play acts very masculine. He kills people brutally, like Banquo, and doesn’t care. Shakespeare seemed to show masculine traits even in the women. This is specifically shown when Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth into killing Duncan, and when

There’s Lady Macbeth, Lady Macduff, and the three witches. Lady Macduff was abandoned by her husband with no reason. During this time, Macbeth killed her and her whole family because he felt that her husband, Macduff, was a threat to him. The witches told Macbeth “for none of a woman born shall harm Macbeth” (Act 4, Scene 1, Lines 94-95), “this prophecy was misread by Macbeth and yet is extremely telling, since it predicts the complete eradication of female power which will ensue at the end of the play, with Lady Macbeth and Lady Macduff dead.” (Dr. Caroline Cakebread). Also, Banquo questioned the witches’ sex by saying to them “you should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so” (Act 1, Scene 3, Lines

Lady Macbeth has to convince Macbeth to kill Duncan, so she persuaded him with words. During this scene there was a crucial part where the reader saw that a woman had to act like a man, and not a woman. Lady Macbeth even said "fill me, from the crown to the toe, topfull of distrest cruelty" (Act 1, Scene 5, lines 43-44). Lady Macbeth showed another sign of masculine when she said "unsex me" (Act 1, Scene 5, line 41). Shakespeare seemed to be telling us that even the woman had to act masculine too. Also, when Macbeth became king he threw a party. At the party, he started acting up and losing his mind. He saw the ghost of a Banquo sitting in his chair, and he started screaming at him, however no one else saw it. So Lady Macbeth had to become the man and explain his intentions. When it happened again, she stopped the party and sent everyone home. Lady Macbeth was given masculine characteristics in order to have