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Paul Ngo Mr. Elliot English 10 AIM 23 September 2014 Gender Roles in Shakespeare’s Macbeth In the tragedy of Macbeth, Shakespeare describes Macbeth’s descent into evil, using murder as a tool to secure power. Throughout the play, Shakespeare depicts gender roles as not being a stereotype, and that the gender of a person does not define who they are or how they act. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth 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 1 Scene 5, Lady Macbeth intends to steel herself in order to convince Macbeth to kill Duncan. She says, “Come, you spirits That tend tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty” (1.5.47-50). Lady Macbeth’s discourse suggest that women are not normally cruel, while men are. Macbeth is then continually prodded by his wife to murder Duncan, and eventually does the deed. However, it was not the spirits that made Lady Macbeth cruel, but Lady Macbeth herself that had the idea of murder in the first place. A lady is not naturally born with stereotyped traits; being female does not mean being kind. In the first act, Macbeth is described as a thane loyal to the crown, with skill in swordsmanship. This loyalty, coupled with Duncan’s good treatment of Macbeth - Duncan granted Macbeth title of Cawdor as well as a s Glamis - is what discourages Macbeth from killing
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Duncan. Arguing with Lady Macbeth, Macbeth says, “We will proceed no further in this business. He hath honored me of late, and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, Not cast aside so soon” (1.7.34-38). Macbeth is not naturally inclined to kill. He has moral values, and his loyalty to Duncan, and believes that not killing Duncan is the right thing to do. “I dare do all that may become a man. Who dares do more is none” (1.7.51-52). However, he is not impervious to external opinion, and succumbs to Lady Macbeth’s urgings, though not without internal conflict and self-doubt. “I am afraid to think what I have done. Look on ’t again I dare not.” (2.2.66-67). As a dynamic character, Macbeth proves again that, not only does gender not restrict people to certain beliefs and actions, characters can change their beliefs; Macbeth goes on to plan more murders and assassinations later in the book. In the third scene of Act 3, members of Duncan’s court discover that the king was murdered. Ironically, when Lady Macbeth asks the business of all the early-morning tumult, Macduff claims that murder is too violent for a lady to hear about, while Lady Macbeth first planned Duncan’s death. “O gentle lady,’Tis not for you to hear what I can speak. The repetition in a woman’s ear Would murder as it fell” (3.1.96-99). The assumption that women are innocent is not true. However, as with Macbeth, Lady Macbeth changes and eventually regrets her actions; over the course of several pages in Act 5, it becomes apparent that Lady Macbeth has developed a disease that causes her stress over how she has caused the deaths of so many, through Macbeth. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s genders remain the same, while their actions, thoughts, and feelings change through the play. Whilst Macbeth becomes more evil in his though ts and actions, feeling less and less
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remorse, Macduff believes that the way of the man is more flexible and caring. When Macduff finds out that his family has been murdered, he grieves for them. Malcolm tells Macduff to talk more like a ‘man’, to which Macduff replies, “I shall do so, But I must also feel it as a man” (4.3.260-261). A man is not always stoic - every person should be able to show and express their feelings truly. On the other hand, when Lady Macbeth dies, Macbeth says, “Life’s… a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing” (5.5.27-31). He is nonchalant about death and does not grieve properly for the death of his wife. Macbeth and Macduff are foils, representing that their male gender do not necessarily mean they act the same. In Macbeth, Shakespeare brings our attention to gender roles - characters in the play, such as Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Malcolm, and Macduff develop the theme that the gender of a person doesn’t detail how they will act - it is the influence of others, their upbringing, guilt, sadness, love, selfishness, loyalty, and greed that ca n motivate and determine how a person will, and does, act.
