Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
Masculinity in Macbeth
5
Masculinity in Macbeth
Social destructiveness
Patriarchy is encouraged
so are the destructive thoughts and behaviors
Exclusively male
leads to destructive consequences
In the book "The family, sex, and marriage in England", Lawrence Stone argues that the patriarchy was encouraged by the traditional comparison of the family to the monarchy.
So the fathers and husbands are pressured to fulfill these roles of king of household with all the expectations of them.
Destructive consequences come from having only aggressive, competitive, and unemotional character.
The exclusively male character can lead to harmful thoughts and behaviors.
In Macbeth's circumstances, these traits allowed for blood lust, murder, and a lonely death.
Macbeth
v.s. Lady Macbeth on Masculinity
In the beginning,
- Macbeth was held more feminine traits & had 2 high male roles to fulfill
- Lady Macbeth held more masculine traits when trying to help her husband fulfill these roles
In the End,
- Macbeth abandons his more feminine traits and exclusively holds masculine ones for the male role he fills
- Lady Macbeth ceases her masculine traits and is now exclusively feminine
Shakespeare's consideration
of the social & personal harm
Masculinity
the stereotypical traits
Macbeth symbolizes the social and personal harm that can come with the pressures on men and their gender roles.
Shakespeare created a character that did not have exclusively masculine traits in the beginning of the play, but changed in order to fit the role expected of him.
However, this change brought death and despair to all of Scotland.
Patriarchy
during the 16th & 17th century
The definition of masculine is of having traits associated with men.
The stereotypical traits are:
- aggressiveness
- independence
- unemotional or repressing emotions
- dominant
- competitive
- never cries
- acts as a leader
- ambitious
The book "Patriarcha", written by the English philosopher Robert Filmer, expresses the idea of the divine right of kings. He argues that the king is the father & the children are like subjects to their father.
The organization of the monarchy is a model for the structure of the household. So the family mirrors the government.