In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Shakespeare displays the female roles in the play as more powerful than Macbeth. Gender stereotypes that are usually portrayed about women being weak and not as strong as men are broken throughout the play, especially with the characters Lady Macbeth and the three witches. Although Macbeth is very evil and has killed many people, Lady Macbeth and the witches were the main reason he committed violent crimes. Shakespeare portrays the female characters in the play as more evil to show that women aren't the innocent, weak individuals that they are usually portrayed as. From the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth’s prominent personality is shown when she gives her “unsex me” speech. In her speech she says “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. Stop up the access and passage to remorse,” which shows that desires being more masculine …show more content…
In act I, scene 3, Banquo says “you should be woman. And yet your beards forbid me to interpret, That you are so.(I.ii.145-147)” He expected the witches to be the perfect, innocent young ladies that society wants them to be, but just because they are different he doesn't want to think of them as women. The witches’ beard shows that they are just as capable as men and that they could even be stronger. This also shows that the witches did not want to be the stereotypical women that everyone expects them to be, but instead they choose to do something that is considered evil to prove that the stereotypes on women are wrong. The women in the play are aware that they live in a male dominated world, but they still continue to show “non-female” characteristics according to society, making them appear to be more powerful than the male
Throughout the plays, the reader can visualize how men dismiss women as trivial and treat them like property, even though the lifestyles they are living in are very much in contrast. The playwrights, each in their own way, are addressing the issues that have negatively impacted the identity of women in society.
Macbeth rejects conformation to traditional gender roles in its portrayal of Lady Macbeth’s relationship with her husband, her morals and their effect on her actions, and her hunger for power. Her regard for Macbeth is one of low respect and beratement, an uncommon and most likely socially unacceptable attitude for a wife to have towards her spouse at the time. She often ignores morality and acts for the benefit of her husband, and subsequently herself. She is also very power-hungry and lets nothing stand in the way of her success. Lady Macbeth was a character which challenged expectations of women and feminism when it was written in the seventeenth century.
Lady Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s most famous and frightening female characters. As she is Macbeth’s wife, her role is significant in his rise and fall from royalty. She is Macbeth’s other half. During Shakespearean times, women were regarded as weak insignificant beings that were there to give birth and look beautiful. They were not thought to be as intelligent or equal to men. Though in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is the highest influence in Macbeth’s life. Her role was so large; in fact, that she uses her position to gain power, stay strong enough to support her unstable Lord, and fails miserably while their relationship falls apart. Everything about Lady Macbeth is enough to create the perfect villain because of her ability to manipulate everyone around her. It appears that even she can’t resist the perfect crime.
in this play, women are used as a symbol of male power, or lack of it.
Shakespeare makes Lady Macbeth equal to her husband Macbeth mentally and physically. During Shakespeare's time women were not known for doing acts of evil or harm. In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth wants to have an equal mindset to her husband Macbeth and men in general by having the spirits “unsex” her. In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth states, 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.” Shakespeare has Lady Macbeth “unsexed” to have her to think and act just as equally as men do.
Gender roles in Macbeths society automatically expect men to be physically and emotionally stronger than women, however, lady Macbeth plays as a juxtaposition to Macbeth; encapsulating the emasculating woman prototype. She wants to abandon all her feminine qualities as she recognises that the characteristics she wants are not acceptable for females. She asks the spirits to "unsex" (1.5 46) her and to fill her "from the crown to the toe, top-full/ Of direst cruelty" (1.5 46). It is in gaining these ‘masculine’ characteristics in Lady Macbeth ultimately attacks Macbeths biggest insecurity- his masculinity. Lady Macbeth is more ambitious and power hungry than Macbeth, and uses him as a vice for her own power conquests. It is at times when he doubts what is right and wrong for his own ambition, that Lady Macbeth uses her power of manipulation to call his manhood into question. At first, Macbeth suggests that killing the King would make him less a man and would cause him too loose his humanity, however, he changes his mind as Lady Macbeth proposes that a real man keeps promises and acts on his ambitions: "When you durst do it, then you were a man;/ And, to be more than what you were, you would/ Be so much more the man" (1.7 54-56). Macbeth therefore murders Duncan to prove that he would be defeated neither by his fear
Initially, when her character is introduced, she displays her masculine traits with complete disregard for any form of femininity. She commands the heavens in these lines, ”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.”(1.5.30-33). In this, Lady Macbeth sheds any attachment she has to her natural embodiment as a woman, and asks the supernatural to help her in her quest to power. It is clearly shown that Lady Macbeth yearns to achieve ambitions that weren’t considered womanly in the time period that this play is set in. As a consequence, she pushes her husband to fulfill her horrendous dreams, because she knows that she will not be affected if Macbeth fails to execute his plans. If Macbeth gets caught, then she remains blameless, and if he doesn’t, she becomes a queen. Either way she doesn’t get hurt. Nonetheless, Lady Macbeth hides another aspiration, one which is evidenced from her humane actions. As a loyal companion to Macbeth, Lady Macbeth wants to ensure that her husband achieves his dream, to be king, at any cost, even if that means sacrificing her femininity and humanity. Generally speaking, this unique perspective on Lady Macbeth shows that her demeaning of Macbeth’s masculinity is actually a display of her true feminine traits; to always support her husband regardless of the price. Lady
The Werd Sisters were nothing like the stereotypical Elizabethan women for a lot of the same reasons as Lady Macbeth.... ... middle of paper ... ... After receiving so many degrading insults, Macbeth dishes one out while trying to persuade the murderers to kill Banquo. Macbeth asked the murderers if they were simply going to forgive Banquo for treating them badly, and they responded, “we are men, my liege.”
Throughout history women have fought for the same rights of men. In the time of William Shakespeare they were seen in society as weak and vulnerable. They were seen to be good, caring and not as powerful as men. Men were the superior and ruled the land. Shakespeare has taken the stereotypical image of the women of the time and turned it on its head in ‘Macbeth’. Lady Macbeth is shown as a very powerful, strong woman. She has an evil about her that Shakespeare has used to make ‘Macbeth’ a supernatural play. Women were seen to be good and not as powerful as men, in ‘Macbeth’ Lady Macbeth is the dominate character and commands and persuades Macbeth to commit the murders and crimes that he does.
Gender is evidently out of its traditional order within the play, and thus the three chosen exemplar characters to showcase this are Lady Macbeth, the Witches, and Macbeth. In saying this, Lady Macbeth is a clear example of how the traditional characteristics of a woman are non-existent as they are taken over by masculinity and strength. The witches challenge their womanhood due to the power they hold and attributes they have, all while Macbeth challenges his gender as he shows femininity through weakness and fretfulness.
In the play, Macbeth, the power of a woman is a strong force to be reckoned with. Many times in the play, the female characters have proven their equality with any man. From the witches to Lady Macbeth, these characters show their power either in words or in actions. The women, in the play Macbeth, contradict the roles set by society in 1606. Women who over stepped their boundaries were considered a threat to the people and were punished severely. It was shocking to the public to see such masculine female characters in Macbeth.
Even though in the play, women are mainly seen as submissive, there are a few incidents of women establishing their beliefs and act as an individual.
In Macbeth, Shakespeare establishes that only a select few characters have another side to them than what appears. He also makes a point with his female characters and their thirst for power. The witches and Lady Macbeth are the more prominent strong females throughout the tragedy. The three witches display the confusion within the audience with many illusions in Macbeth. “ Fair is foul and foul is fair:
Shakespeare is known for strong male heroes, but they are not laying around in this play, not that Macbeth is full of strong female heroines, either. The women in the play, Lady Macbeth and the witches have very uncommon gender belief, and act as inhumane as the men. While the men engage in direct violence, the women use manipulation to achieve their desires. As Lady Macbeth impels Macbeth to kill King Duncan, she indicated that she must take on some sort of masculine characteristic in order to process the murder. “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.” (i v 31-34) This speech is made after she reads Macbeth’s letter. Macbeth, she has shown her desire to lose her feminine qualities and gain masculine ones. Lady Macbeth's seizure of the dominant role in the Macbeth's marriage, on many occasions, she rules her husband and dictates his actions. Her speeches in the first part of the book give the readers a clear impression. “You shall put this night’s great business into my dispatch, which shall […] gi...
Men have so much control in this society and Shakespeare has a little bit of a change in the women in his play.