Macbeth Feminist Lens

With social and cultural stereotypes in this era, men were viewed as more powerful while women were portrayed as weak. William Shakespeare tries to interpret the roles between genders by having characters of the opposite sex. In the play Macbeth, William Shakespeare uses rhetorical devices to demonstrate Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s switch in traditional gender roles, which arise from the consequences for each character’s actions and speech.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare brings about one of the most controversial topic of the gender portrayal in a play. During Shakespearean times, women were considered as the weaker sex, physically and emotionally. On the other hand, men were seen as the dominant sex that is expected to be the head of their households and a strong figure. Unlike this stereotypical representation of men and women, Shakespeare introduces the reversal of gender roles in his play. Shakespeare’s portrayal of the relationship and characteristics of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth diverged from the stereotypical representation of both men and women. The author, William Shakespeare’s use of reverse gender roles which contradicted with the traditional gender roles, is what

Behind every successful man there is a ruthless woman pushing him along to gain her own personal successes. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth causes Macbeths downfall. With the faults and lies of Lady Macbeth, marriage is Macbeth’s big mistake. Lady Macbeth turns his courageous conquests on the fields of war into butchery. Mangled by the blood-spotted hands of his wife he becomes a traitor to himself, the people around him, and even her.

In the old Shakespeare play Macbeth, women wear the pants, while the men wear the dresses, this is the theme throughout the play. It focuses on the marriage of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth takes the lead role, while she convinces her husband to kill Duncan. Shakespeare play concerning gender roles, shows the untraditional marriage in Scotland; what one sees is not what one gets. It also show how one starts is not how they end. The story of Macbeth shows power and betrayal. It shows power because it shows how one can take charge and get it done. It shows betrayal because he kill Duncan just to get the crown.

The struggle for power is encountered through the interactions between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. When initially introduced to the character of Lady Macbeth, she reads a letter addressed to her from Macbeth in which he states his plans to kill King Duncan and assume the throne. Lady Macbeth responds with a speech signifying her agreeance and calls for the strength to carry on with the plan: “Come, you spirits/ That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,/ And fill me from the crown to the top-full/ of direst cruelty” (1.5.47-50). Here, she is denouncing her femininity to take on a more masculine role and to be filled with nothing but motivation for the cruel crime. Shakespeare uses this scene to foreshadow the event in which the crime will be committed. While Macbeth begins to have second thoughts and uneasiness towards the situation, Lady Macbeth tells him: “What beast was ’t,/ then, / That made you break this enterprise to me?/ 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” (1.7.53-58). Lady Macbeth is emasculating her husband her by questioning his ability to be a man and how he hesitates to make the move towards power while she is confident in her decision. Shakespeare makes a choice to have a woman be the one to urge the death of Duncan to show the reversal of gender roles and to expose Lady Macbeth’s character. The playwright

After thinking over the plan to kill Duncan, he realizes that it would be very immoral to murder his king. Macbeth begins thinking of his responsibilities as Duncan’s subject and host “who should against his murderer shut the door, / Not bear the knife [himself]” (Macbeth 1.7.15-16). As Macbeth rejects the idea of murdering Duncan, Lady Macbeth’s desire for the crown seems to grow; she begins to doubt Macbeth’s ambition to become a great king, so Lady Macbeth attacks Macbeth’s masculinity to provoke Macbeth enough to murder Duncan. Implying that he is not yet a man, Lady Macbeth says, “When you durst do it, then you were a man” (Macbeth 1.7.56).

Due to the heavy influence of women in his play, William Shakespeare’s Macbeth seems to be a work different from it’s time. Domineering Lady Macbeth and the the supernatural Weïrd Sisters are central characters in the work, but also are women who are catalysts for major unfortunate occurrences in the play. On the surface, Macbeth is a tale about ambition, power, murder, sorcery, and ghosts. But by taking a critical view on the famous tragedy, Macbeth truly tells the cautionary tale of what happens when powerful woman lose themselves in patriarchal society. Through Judeo-Christian and patriarchal ideology, Shakespeare reinforces patriarchal views of women, feeding into the harmful misogynistic stereotypes that are still held today.

In Macbeth, one of the most tragic and well known plays, William Shakespeare changes women’s part in society. During this time period, women are known to be both mentally and physically weaker than men. Women are called to be only housewives. Shakespeare reflected the image of women in society by giving the men bigger leads in his plays. Only in a few of Shakespeare's plays did he give women strong leading roles. Macbeth is one of the few plays where women play a more powerful role than the men. In Macbeth, he gives the women unusual traits like manipulation and betrayal. In William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, women like Lady Macbeth , the trio witches, and Lady Macduff portray non-feminine traits.

Aptly described as "fiendlike" by Prince Malcolm, Lady Macbeth was a major participant in the ruin of Macbeth. She was a woman virtually devoid of human emotions and general scruples. Her lack of principles and mindless ambition made her a proponent of seizing the throne. She goaded her husband into the act of vile murder with the words, "Yet do I fear thy nature. / It is too full o' the milk of human kindness" (Shakespeare 189). Lady Macbeth later said, "When you durst do it [kill Duncan], then you were a man" (Shakespeare 189). Lady Macbeth called Macbeth weak and made light of his manhood in order to influence him towards the murder of Duncan. Without the influence of his wife, Macbeth may have lacked the single minded resolve to go through with the murder of good King Duncan. In addition to pushing Macbeth to commit the murders, Lady Macbeth acted as accomplice that made his succession to the throne possible. Lady Macbeth came up with the plan to frame two innocent guards for the murder of Duncan. "...his two chamberlains [the ones she planned to frame for the murder] / Will I with wine and wassail so

In Macbeth, many elements that affect the story’s plot and outcome; however, gender and position of power play the most important role of the story. For example, Lady Macbeth continuously wants to be changed into a man in order to get certain duties done that Macbeth is hesitant to do. Also, Lady Macbeth uses the power of belittling Macbeth’s masculinity to further drive his actions in the play. Lastly, the witches’ predictions of Macbeth’s future affect and change him through the position of power he will soon possess. Overall, many aspects of the play foreshadow and affect the ending of the play; however, sex (gender) and power have the biggest impact.

According to gender theory, society assigns certain conventions and roles for men and women. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, these gender roles play an important part in ensuing violence. Both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth appeal to the role of “manhood” as violent and aggressive in order to accomplish the murders of King Duncan and Banquo. Women are portrayed as initiators of evildoings and, thus, inherently wicked. In Macbeth, William Shakespeare uses the characters of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and Macduff to demonstrate how the change in gender roles from those of medieval society to those of a modern society create confusing choices in the means of attaining goals.

In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, gender plays a pivotal role in the development of the overall plot and as the play advances, certain characters, including Macbeth and Lady Macbeth experience a reversal in traditional gender behaviors. Additionally, we see gender confusion among other characters that enhances conflict in the play. Originally, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are portrayed in ways that enforce their respective masculinity and feminism in accordance to the society around them. As Macbeth begins to contemplate his decision regarding the killing of Duncan, his marriage becomes the primary driving force behind his action and thoughts in this matter. Although in some cases, male and female roles in this play remain static, the

Lady Macbeth and Macbeth both break gender roles throughout Macbeth.They both display traits that are not the way females and males, respectively, are ‘supposed’ to act. Shakespeare intended to prove that it is not true that males kill easily and without much thought and females are fragile and innocent. In Act I Scene v, Lady Macbeth intends to steel herself in order to

Although Lady Macbeth is seen as cold and emotionless throughout Macbeth “consider it not so deeply”, towards the end of the play, her vulnerability and underlying feminism that she didn’t want to show “unsex me here” was uncovered through her sleepwalking and going crazy from guilt for what she had done. This restores the traditional balance back to the relationship because she becomes very weak and feeble as oppose to Macbeth who has taken on the dominant role to the extent whereto he gains false confidence and becomes foolish with the power. This is comparable to Faust who perhaps lets his success go to his head suggested with the hyperbole “walked on the moon.” Lady Macbeth’s breakdown is comparable to that of Havisham whose heart “b-b-breaks”.

Woman have been undermined for centuries. They have been inferior to men, have always been controlled and never given a chance to prove themselves. In reality, women are strong, independent, wise, respectful and many more promising qualities. In literature, females were given the chance to prove that they have all of these qualities. The play MacBeth by William Shakespeare and the film The Crucible by Arthur Miller present strong female characters who directly affect the tragic hero’s ultimate redemption, most especially noted in Lady Macbeth, Abigail, and Goody Proctor, for all of them use their feminine “ways” to alter the course of their respective protagonists’ lives and challenge them in their journeys of self-discovery.