Macbeth Gender Roles

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The three plays we read in class reveal very notable, influential, and standout female characters. Lady Macbeth from Macbeth, Isabella from Measure for Measure, and Rosalind from As you like it are powerful personalities not just because they are women, but how they influence their environments, people in the community, and the world as a whole. One of the profound themes in Macbeth is gender role in society. Lady Macbeth definitely makes us question these because she is masculine in the play and exhibits typical roles men would have. She wants the spirits to rid her of her feminine traits, “Come, you spirits/That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood; …show more content…

Later in this monologue, she adds she wants her breast milk to be poison. She wants to not have the quality of being able to birth a child because she believes it will interfere with her evil plans. She recognizes being a woman makes people assume you’re compassionate, sweet, and kind. She wants to feel like a man because people associate toughness with men. She says Macbeth is “ It is too full o' the milk of human kindness” (Macbeth 1.5.17) and implies that he isn’t masculine enough, rather too feminine, to hold the position of power she wants. Yes, Macbeth proves his manhood to her by killing Duncan, but later on it is just Macbeth killing people, rising to power while Lady Macbeth is felling so guilty for the murder plot, she is literally going crazy. Her at first masculine role becomes back at what it should be; she is now feminine. I say she is feminine now because her man makes all of the decisions …show more content…

Lady Macbeth challenges the gender role in society where women are quiet, well mannered, and inferior to their husbands. She challenged her own husbands masculinity because he exhibited seemingly feminine characteristics when planning how to get to the throne. Ultimately she cannot handle the thought of murder, and goes crazy. Is this saying something regarding men needing to be more feminine, or is Shakespeare saying that women play a different role than we ever could’ve imagined in society? Isabella is loyal and true to herself, and is willing to see her brother die. Is she self centered and crazy, or is she realizing that she having sex wont do anything regarding her brothers unlawful sinful sex? She leaves the deafening response to the dukes marriage, where we don’t know what happens; if she does marry the duke, or if she goes on and becomes a nun. One interpretation of this can be that women aren’t limited to any one option in life; they don’t have to marry a man. They can be whoever they want to be. Isabella could’ve married him because she wanted to fall in love, because she saw that her cause for being a nun was no longer relevant, or because she was so strict to principles given to her (she wanted to follow the strict

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