Gender Roles in Macbeth

Gender Roles in Macbeth

Although written long ago, Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth still has themes relevant for contemporary society. Murderous ambition, political intrigue, crafty social alliances, the disintegration of marriage – these could be headlines from any daily news program. It comes as no surprise, then, that we also find a significant number of moments in the play where gender seems to be an issue. More specifically, we might say that Shakespeare's dramatic investigation into proper uses of power consists, in part, of a rigorous critique of the disparities between the respective roles assigned to men and women. Shakespeare seems especially interested in the moral and ethical implications of such discrepancies. In the interest of space and time, I will focus here on only a few brief moments from act one. However, I encourage you to note the further development of these points as the drama unfolds in subsequent scenes.

In the very first scene of Macbeth we learn what Duncan and his people value in masculine identity. When the sergeant staggers in to report what he has seen of Macbeth in battle, we are given an image of a thane who is steeped in gore:

For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name),

Disdaining Fortune, with his brandish'd steel,

Which smok'd with bloody execution,

Like Valour's minion carv'd out his passage,

Till he fac'd the slave;

Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,

Till he unseam'd him from the nave to th'chops,

And fix'd his head upon our battlements. (1.2.16-23)

The king's response to this account is especially telling: "O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman!" (1.2.16-24) demonstrates as much appreciation for the manner in which Macbeth overcame h...

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...41). By play's end, we are confronted with her madness, the result of an excruciating tension between her identity as a woman and the desire to accommodate a misconceived and fatally monstrous masculinity.

Although I do not intend here to resolve the question of gender in Macbeth (actually, I hope to provoke further thoughts on interpretation), I do wish to note that Shakespeare has forcefully bound the cultural problem of violence to the promulgation and validation of the roles a community assigns by sex. Read the play; attend a performance; consider the moral and ethical implications bound up in the plot of a would-be king who sheds true manhood even as he fulfills the masculine ideal.

Works Cited:

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th ed. New York: Longman, 1999.