Elizabethan Gender Roles In Macbeth

Until relatively recently women weren’t seen to have a role outside of the home. This also meant that they were connected more with characteristics connected with taking care of children. This included having emotion, being gentle and kind, being well put together and intensely caring. In contrast men were thought to carry a more intense personality, be violent and aggressive, and be more or less ruthless. This concept is displayed throughout Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Shakespeare’s word choice surrounding the idea of gender roles in Macbeth expressed how certain gender characteristics were viewed in the Elizabethan Era. Since Macbeth was written for people to act out, the word choice is represented within dialogue. The way the characters react

This could be connected to his use of the female body and what he associates it with. William C. Carrol wrote in his essay, “Discourses of the Feminine”, to address a few of the parts in which Shakespeare refers to femininity. Carrol mentions the passage in which Lady Macbeth says “make thick my blood./ stop up th’ access and passage to remorse/ that no compunctious visitings of nature/ shake my fell purpose” (1.5.50-53). Carrol says that says that this shows an association between remorse and the womb. He mentions how this explains that “whatever is feminine is thus liable to pity and remorse” (Carrol, 348). This idea could then be in turn connected to why Macbeth should “Beware Macduff” (4.1.81) even though “none of woman born/ shall harm Macbeth” (4.1.91-92). Everyone has to be born from a woman, however, there is the exception of Macduff who was bron from a C-section. This raises the question of what makes him capable of killing Macbeth since C-section is still coming from a woman. If connected to the idea of the womb leading to remorse, Macduff didn’t go through the passage that had access to remorse. This means that due to this he could avoid feeling regret after killing Macbeth. This thought helps keep up the central thought that men are emotionless and that it is the job of a woman to feel