Masculinity and Femininity in Macbeth

FONTS

Masculinity and Femininity in Macbeth

Witches

Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth consistently throughout the play assumes the ideas that she must become more masculine to be dominant and impose her authority on others which sadly indirectly leads to her husbands death

The witches are truly the only women figures within the play that can directly influence someone's fate.

• "You should be... you are so" (I, iii, 47-49)
• Quote tells of the power to influence fate being directly linked with being a man (only men would really have the ability to do that) hence the beards that they have
• "No man... power upon thee" (V, iii, 7-8)
• Since a man born of woman must be born with the weaknesses of a woman, it can be assumed that femininity in this case is directly related to weakness and that Macbeth could never be defeated by anyone like that

The witches are still odd in the fact that they carry both masculine and feminine traits (as defined earlier). Though they can directly affect life (the death of the Chestnut Lady's husband), they can also influence events, such as the rise and fall of Macbeth, without truly intervening (manipulation... kinda), simply by prophesying.

• "Unsex me here" (I, v, 48)
• Describes her desire to relinquish all feminine qualities of her character to be more forceful and masculine
• Though she wants to possess more masculine qualities, she knows that is is limited by her gender, so she uses more feminine ways to do this
• Takes matters into her own hands while effectively making her husband feel like less of a man to get the outcomes that she desires

Defining and Background

Influence on Macbeth over Time (dI/dt)

Manipulation over Time (dm/dt)

Super emasculator

Gotta listen to them

Starting to be rude

Level of maniupulation

Masculinity

Femininity

This could be important

Not so much

(I, v, 48) (I, vii, 36-45)

(III, iv, 60-75)

Nada

Time

Lady Macbeth's Death

(IV, i)

(I, iv)

(Macbeth fully believes witches)

(Predictions start coming true)

• Manipulating
• Dependent on Others
• Weakness

• Dominating
• Aggression
• Powerful role (Kings)

During the time in which Macbeth takes place, the man of the household was meant to protect and to support his family. He is the breadwinner and makes sure that his family is well provided for. The women of this time period were not so inclined to support the family and such and were meant to raise children as their main job.

The idea of a woman taking control of a household is not uncommon though to the time period in which it was written. At the time Macbeth was first printed, England had already experienced two different queens to rule the throne, so the idea of a woman leader wasn't completely foreign to Shakespeare and could be the reason for implementing within his play. This also gives rise to why Lady Macbeth becomes such a driving factor in Macbeth's actions.

Macduff

Macbeth

Macduff can be seen as the final real embodiment of how masculinity is the key to power within Macduff. Since he has no ties to a woman (with respect to birth), he is seen as more powerful due to his lack of natural, feminine birth.

• Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb, Untimely ripped. (V, viii, 15-16).
• This quote truly reveals how to be truly powerful and great, one must not have any ties to a woman, which allows him to strike down Macbeth.

All too often, Macbeth is given the role of defending his manhood because his wife has done such. This leads to a kind of masculine/feminine duality of Macbeth throughout the play, with his initial ideas and actions being more weak, later to be replaced with a more powerful and aggressive action.

• "I dare... more is none." (I, vii, 47-48)
• Defending his manhood, kind of, by essentially agreeing to carry out his wife's will
• "I will not fight thee" (V, viii, 22)
• Very feminine in the sense of wishing to refrain from combat and be weak

Macbeth is always left with somehow needing to make up for his manhood that he has lost or displaced in favor of more feminine means.

Macduff's Manliness over Time (dM/dt)

Killing the ultimate evil

No time for tears

Not shaving for a long time

Macbeth's Masculinity over Time (dM/dt)

(V, viii)

(IV, iii)

Abandoning your family

Supreme manhood

(IV, ii)

Being a super cool thane

Swaggy Sources

Being emasculated

Dying as a lonely coward

(V, viii)

(III, iv)

(I, v)

(I, iii)

Time

• AP World Cultural Traditions and Encounters (AP World textbook)
• Asp, Caroline. “”Be bloody, bold and resolute”: Tragic Action and Sexual Stereotyping in Macbeth”. Studies in Philology 78.2 (1981); 153-169. JSTOR. Web. 5 May 2014.