Examples Of Gender Reversal In Macbeth

In the book of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have a huge gender reversal. This essay will explain from Lady Macbeth crave for the death of the king and Macbeth being scared until Macbeth losing his mind and Lady Macbeth being in his position.

In the story, Lady Macbeth starts to think of herself and Macbeth position if the king was gone. She starts to get impatient and trying to get Macbeth to betray the king by killing him. Lady Macbeth started by trying to call Macbeth out by saying, “What thou art promised. Yet do I fear the nature/ It is too full o’ th’ milk of the human kindness”. She tells him he’s too nice of a servant, just basically calling him to soft to hurt anyone. Lady Macbeth starts to get worse thinking to herself saying,

She is starting to go back to past killings she and Macbeth have caused and experienced, trying to figure out how to coop with it all at once. As it continued to think it over and over, she starts to sleep walk and to do this constant rubbing of her hands to remove the “spot” that isn’t there, and she desperately asks “What, will these hands ne’er be clean?”. At the time, Macbeth begins to plan murders himself, leaving Lady Macbeth out of it, telling her to “Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, / Till thou applaud the deed”. Macbeth’s refusal to involve Lady Macbeth and use of the command form to demand her to be ignorant of what he will do. He starts to have a lot more power over her since he is the one making the plans and taking action on his own, without needing her thoughts or input. In addition, Lady’s Macbeth’s power is further undermined by the fact that she kills herself. When Macbeth is being told of Lady Macbeth death, he does not seem surprised or upset, his response of “She should have died hereafter” which in this case meaning that he knew she was going to die anyway, he was just patiently waiting not really giving a second thought about it. Lady Macbeth death does not cause or set soft emotions in Macbeth that she previously said he possessed. Lastly, Macbeth holding the final power in his relationship comes when he discusses his killing before fighting Macduff. He references the Romans’ acceptance of self-killing as a worthy death, calling them all “fools.” However, his statement ultimately can suggest that Lady Macbeth was a fool for killing herself or that she did not die with dignity. This final undermining of Lady Macbeth’s agency by Macbeth’s deliberate pursuit of a death separate from hers shows his regained power, derived from a transition to the more masculine trait of ruthlessness formerly embodied by his