Examples Of Masculinity In Macbeth

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In Shakespeare's Macbeth Lady Macbeth is one of the most dominant characters in the play. She is the wife of Protagonist Macbeth. In many parts of the play she characterizes herself as a manipulative ambitious woman who will do anything for power. Lady Macbeth uses her masculinity as a way to get what she wants. As a female she wants to become stronger like a man so that she can commit all the acts of violence she would like to. Throughout the play we realize that Lady Macbeth lives vicariously through Macbeth. She uses her words and his masculinity, which is very important to Macbeth, to get inside his head and make him become the vicious killer he is by the end of the play. As the play goes on Lady Macbeth starts to feel more guilt

and remorse and realizes that she isn’t as strong as she seems.
One way that Lady Macbeth gets what she wants is through using Macbeth's masculinity against him.

She calls him out on his masculinity when he is hesitant to Kill King Duncan. ”When you dared to do it, that’s when you were a man. And if you go one step further by doing what you dared to do before, you’ll be that much more the man,” (1,6 49-50). She questions his manhood to persuade him to kill KIng Duncan. Lady Macbeth wants Macbeth to kill King Duncan so that she will gain so much power, but she is not willing to commit the crimes herself. In act three scene four when Macbeth is frightened by seeing the ghost of Banquo Lady Macbeth compares his fear to “ would well become a woman’s story at a winter’s fire, Authorized by her grandma.” (3,4 66-69).Also comparing him to a woman and using grandam also compares Macbeth to being so frail that he would be scared speaking with a grandam. Macbeth also realizes that Lady Macbeth is very powerful like a man.”Bring forth men-children only compose Nothing but males.”( 1,7 72-74). Macbeth is so focused on proving his own masculinity to understand that his wife is the one persuading and manipulating him. While Lady Macbeth believes that she is powerful she uses her gender as a excuse and Macbeth's masculinity as a way to acquire her

wishes.

There is a reason that Lady Macbeth doesn't want to kill anyone herself. Throughout the play both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth switch roles. Lady Macbeth becomes a remorseful and guilty person while Macbeth becomes a vicious and remorseless killer that will do anything for power. In act one scene five Lady Macbeth has a long soliloquy about Macbeth and how he is not strong enough to take on the title of Thane of Cawdor. “ Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way,” (1,5 2-5). Lady Macbeth is ambitious to be able to gain the power for herself. She wants to persuade him to be to get out of whatever he s into so that she can take it. This characterizes her as strong and ambitious. This is also one of her harmatia’s. She believes that she can do what she would like because she is such a powerful woman but by the end of the play she has fallen into a pit of despair. In the Soliloquy she it thought to be speaking about Macbeth, but she is also talking about herself.
Lady Macbeth questions Macbeth's ambition and braver, but thing is foreshadowing for the questioning that she does of her own at the end of the play.” That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win” (1,5 9,10). By living vicariously through Macbeth she is really more like Macbeth at the beginning of the play than it seems. Also in the soliloquy Lady Macbeth she mentions her “female breast” and “mothers milk”. By exhibiting these very female possessions she is showing that she is more of a woman than she envisions. Also in act one scene seven she says “ I have given suck, and know How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me.” (1,7 55,56) again referencing a very feminine thing to do but in the context of a vicious act. Also in the soliloquy in scene one act five Lady Macbeth says. “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the toes top full Of direst cruelty.”(1,4 30-33). When Lady Macbeth uses an apostrophe by asking an unknown power to take away her femininity and make her more masculine so that she can be more cruel it emphasizes her weakness. If Lady Macbeth has to refer to a power higher that her pr celestial body to “unsex” her and she won’t be able to do it herself then she cannot be as strong as she thinks also showing her weakness.
Throughout the play we see many important changes. One of the biggest changes we see is Lady Macbeth’s. By the end of the play Lady Macbeth is very guilty and crazed about her acts of violence. In the beginning of the play she was more