Gender Roles In Macbeth

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A Character In Itself:
The Role of Gender in Macbeth

Living in the world of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth would not be easy. It is a world filled with deception, scrutiny, and pure evil. The characters in Shakespeare’s play use many tools to deceive, gain power, or even kill. A main “tool” used by these characters is gender. Gender is out of order throughout the play as characters take on qualities that are “out of the norm” for a man or woman. Shakespeare clearly gave his characters this complexity to show the tragedy that ensues when one gender takes on the characteristics of the other.
Most critics (6) agree that Shakespeare wrote characters that do not conform to defined gender roles to criticize gender stereotypes that existed as heroic men or passive women. Cakebread uses the ambiguity of the Witches’ gender as an example they aid in questioning what many believe are typical masculine and feminine attributes. Furthermore, Alfar points out that Shakespeare uses his characters to show that characteristics cannot be deemed as masculine or feminine. For example, violence cannot be associated as solely a trait expressed by the men in this tragedy. Asp looks at stereotypes that Shakespeare displays throughout the play and in Asp’s opinion, Macbeth’s wrongdoings stem from his insecurities of not fully embodying the definition of a true man. Ramsey adds to Asp’s argument by trying to prove that Shakespeare is asking the question, “What is a man?” Throughout, this question is explored and Shakespeare exposes the ambiguity in the definition of man in Lady Macbeth questioning Macbeth’s courage, an attribute not to be overlooked when defining a true man. Smuts also agrees but added something unique in that not only are the definiti...

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...eards with tales of women suddenly turning into men. This may have been Shakespeare acknowledging that the women had to become men in order to take on more active roles in the play.
It is clear that the gender role reversal of Macbeth and his wife is the ultimate tragedy. Men were often written as purely “heroic” and women were simply stand-ins. It is indisputable that all begins to go wrong after Duncan’s murder. Is it a coincidence this is also the first attempt of Lady Macbeth to steal the man’s role in Act 1? It is in Act I that the audience sees a subtle transition of Macbeth as the typical hero into a man who is seen as submissive by his own wife. Perhaps this is not the most accepted argument for the role that gender plays in Macbeth , but overall there seems to be strong direct support from characters’ quotes that make this argument personally convincing.

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