Gender Roles In Macbeth Essay

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From as far as we know it, gender roles have existed in our society and still plays a huge role in societies across the globe. Throughout history, women were often portrayed as weak, unintelligent, sentimental, and useless. Women have been perceived as a homemaker, they had to take of their children and take care of their households. Men, on the other hand, are portrayed as money makers, strong, smart, and noble. Patriarchy has been very common in our society. Even today, many families live in a social system where males have the primary power, father-like figures have authority over women and children and are predominate in roles of political leadership and social privilege.Throughout history, women have been faced with violence, isolation, …show more content…

Shakespeare uses masculinity and power as a strong symbol throughout the play. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, strive for power, Macbeth struggles mentally with his masculinity and Lady Macbeth works through Macbeth to achieve power she couldn’t with her femininity. In Act 1, Scene 7, Macbeth states “ I dare do all that may become a man. Who dares more is none” (I.VII.47-48). Lady Macbeth uses his masculinity against him to convince him to kill the king. Throughout the story, Lady Macbeth aims at Macbeth’s masculinity in order to control him. This shows the dominance Lady Macbeth held in their relationship, this inverts the traditional gender roles and …show more content…

Even today, gender plays a huge role in society especially in terms of jobs, politics and society’s social systems. Women, still are portrayed as the weaker sex in society. Due to historical attitudes towards women and established gender biases, many jobs have an overwhelmingly high dominance of men, which makes it difficult for women to advance. In the United States, the presidents are someone who symbolizes strength and power but unfortunately, the stereotypical gender norms created by society portray women as weak. Therefore, women typically are not voted in high- ranking offices, this can also be seen in Macbeth. The time when Macbeth was written, women had little to no rights, women were not even allowed to be king which symbolizes hierarchy and power during that time period. Just like in Macbeth, United States have yet to have a female president. Throughout the play, Lady Macbeth struggles with gender roles, because of greed and power, and works through her husband to gain worldly

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