Gender Roles In Macbeth

Jordan Collins
Ms. Dillard
English II Honors: F Period
11 May 2023

Gender Roles in Macbeth

Rigid gender roles place strict confines upon society and often change the ways in which people think and live. Many characters in Macbeth struggle with what defines them as masculine or feminine, repeatedly attempting to conform more to one or the other based on societal expectations and standards. In Macbeth, masculinity is equated with power, cruelty, and impassiveness while femininity is equated with weakness, fragility, and being overly emotional. Shakespeare draws attention to gender in order to highlight the impact it has upon society, emphasizing that gender is arbitrarily tied to certain traits or actions. Lady Macbeth attempts to

His insecurity leads him to be easily manipulated by Lady Macbeth. Characters often reference power, violence, and cruelty as traits that make one a man. Macbeth is insecure in his masculinity, and fears being perceived as “unmanly”. From the outside Macbeth appears to be the ideal picture of what would have been defined as a strong, masculine man at the time, being a soldier and formerly a thane. His insecurity is displayed by the fact that the primary way Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth into doing her bidding is by targeting his masculinity. During an argument in which Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are considering killing king duncan, Macbeth says to Lady Macbeth, "Prithee, peace: / I dare do all that may become a man; / Who dares do more is none" (1.7.45-47). Macbeth attempts to convince Lady Macbeth that murder does not make him manly, but Lady Macbeth uses the association of violence and acts of power as equating to masculinity, and Macbeth’s unwillingness to do so, to prey on his insecurity in his masculinity. Lady Macbeth counters him by stating, “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 (1.7.47-49)”. Macbeth's fear of being perceived as unmanly displays the importance of

In Macbeth, gender roles are held in high regard by the characters and the society in which the characters live. The strict gender roles upheld by society influence the character’s actions throughout the play, becoming a driving factor for the plot of the play. Macbeth's insecurity in his masculinity drives him to be easily manipulated by Lady Macbeth, and her cruelty and ambition are compared to masculinity. Lady Macbeth's desire to escape from the confines of her femininity is driven by the rigidity of the gender roles of her time, which she felt limited her possibility for power. Overall, gender plays an essential role in Macbeth as the struggles the characters face with the constraints of the gender roles of the time guide many of the character's actions and decisions throughout the play. Many of the arbitrary principles and nonsensical associations forged by gender roles that the characters in the play struggle with still affect society today, displaying the relevance of Macbeth in contemporary