...March 2015 Macbeth is written during the reigning of king James I. A time when a man was expected to be strong, brave, gallant and the head of his home. A lady was to be found weak, waiting for her husbands next command. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth do not fit into their stereotype or gender roles, they display characters of role reversal. Macbeth is the opposing stereotype of what a man should be. In this time period men where known for their strengths, bravery, greediness and sometimes murder. To the public and his friends Macbeth seemed to be a man in control of his wife and household but behind closed doors he was all the characteristics a man should not be. Macbeth displayed characteristics more suitable for a woman such as; self doubt, worried, fear and guilt. “I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on’t again I dare not” (Macbeth Act II, Scene II page 35). Macbeth is persuaded by his wife to kill Duncan even when he objects and has doubts. In the beginning of the play Macbeth allows his wife to make the majority of their decisions. Who he should kill and what guest they invite to the party in order for him to become king. This shows his character to be weak and void of leadership. Stereotypical when you hear the name Lady Macbeth you think etiquette, elegance, meekness, soft spoken and gentle. Lady Macbeth is quite the opposite. Her characteristics in the play are empowering, greedy, fearless, evil and murderous. Not only does Lady Macbeth display characters...
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...In the Elizabethan Era gender roles were strictly defined and maintained by those in high society. Throughout Macbeth, both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have a slow demise to insanity as they attempt to . In addition to motifs like blood, hands, and nature, Shakespeare uses gender reversals to convey the importance of congruency within genders. William Shakespeare’s Macbeth uses gender role reversals to show the character’s progression to insanity, this is to inforce the notion that men and women need to stay within their predetermined roles. Men are typically viewed as ruthless and carouse, but the men in Macbeth are seemingly gentle and value life; however, the women, especially Lady Macbeth, are the opposite of demure and very headstrong....
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...Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ and John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’ written in the 17th and 20th century, separated by hundreds of years of development and change within the world, both reflect the ideologies, treatment and representations of women in their respective eras. The principal feminine representatives are Lady Macbeth and Curley’s wife who throughout both texts demonstrate similarities and differences in their portrayal of their relationships with their male counterpart, the description of their tragic deaths and the conventional role of men and women and how they fit or break the stereotype. In this essay, I will refer to the aforementioned depictions, analysing the techniques the writers use to create their characters, and how a Jacobean audience, one during the Great Depression of the 1930s and a modern audience would react. Rather than supporting her husband in a subservient manner, Shakespeare makes Lady Macbeth the ruthless mastermind of a fiendish, venal and daring enterprise aimed to ensure her husband would ‘catch the nearest way’. In Act 1 Scene 5, when attempting to convince Macbeth to commit this necessary deed, she utters the heartless words ‘you shall put this night's great business into my dispatch’ inferring she intends to commit Duncan's murder herself. ‘Dispatch’ would lead a modern audience to believe she will only manage and oversee the murderous plan, however, in Elizabethan England, it would have meant to kill with quick efficiency; thus, Lady Macbeth prepares...
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...Manhood in Macbeth In today's society the traditional stereotype of manhood is that men are to be strong and powerful. Normally males demonstrate a being strong and have a powerful exterior, while females usually show that they are full of inertial emotions. Common Manhood motifs shown in in Macbeth are tied together with strength, power, physical courage, and force. The characters in the Macbeth use the idea of manhood to instigate one another into fighting, just to serve their own benefits the characters have manipulated their ideas of manliness. Masculinity becomes a trait that is manipulated by Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth by making him questioning his manhood and convincing him to murder the King of Scotland, Duncan. The same way Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband. Another example would be how Macbeth convinces the three murderers he hired to kill Banquo and Fleance by questioning them, and making them question their own power and masculinity. One point of view of masculinity could be its dominance over femininity. The first women that appear in the play are the witches. When they meet Macbeth for the first time, he “start and seem to fear” (1.3.54) their prophecies. While it is not shown in the play, there is also a wish that...
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...“Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (Shakespeare, I.i.11). The three witches in Macbeth state that what is good, is bad and what is bad, is good. They live in a world where everyone is not what they seem. Appearance versus reality is a theme that repeatedly occurs throughout the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare. In this story, which takes place in Scotland in the early seventeenth century, three witches tell Macbeth that in the future, he will be king. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth begin to plot King Duncan’s murder so that Macbeth can be king. The three witches, Macbeth, and Lady Macbeth all prove that looks can be deceiving in both the play Macbeth and in society. To begin, the three witches use their powers to tell Macbeth his future, however,...
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...Macbeth is a notorious script from playwright William Shakespeare. This tale stars Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth during Medieval Scotland. Under King Duncan’s reign, he two lust for power after receiving a prophecy, listing that Macbeth will become the new king. They will do anything for the crown, including murder. Recurring themes, also known as motifs, are laced within Macbeth’s plot. Masculinity presents itself as a struggle to appeal to societal male stereotypes. Aspects of darkness display negativity within Macbeth’s changed lifestyle. Macbeth is a piece that cannot be interpreted from a single viewpoint because almost all context has a deeper meaning, making Macbeth a very heavy-weighted read. Upholding the standard to being...
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...Lady Macbeth is a fascinating character in the famous play written by William Shakespeare entitled Macbeth. Lady Macbeth has a multi faceted personality because one side of her character is contemptible, determined and rude while the other side is extremely fearful and hesitant. One of Shakespeare’s most famous characters, Lady Macbeth is known for manipulating her husband to commit the murder of king Duncan and thereby making her an active participant in the crime. Ambition is one of her most prominent traits; She will do anything to become queen and eventually she does but the thing about Lady Macbeth is that she has a conscience, even though she regards it as a weakness. The regret she feels about convincing her husband kill the king, the representative of God on earth, is eventually her demise. The first appearance of Lady Macbeth is in Act 1 Scene 5. At the beginning of the play she is violent and ambitious. She wants King Duncan dead so she can be the Queen and her husband the king. She craves power and control. Lady Macbeth is extremely controlling and uses any means necessary to eventually achieving her goal of getting her husband to murder the king. She states“, “were you not a man when you broke this enterprise to me”(1,7,47-48). Her ability to manipulate her husband eventually changes his mind and he goes ahead and kills Duncan. Lady Macbeth is willing to lie and compromise her integrity if she can get what she wants. Lady Macbeth questions her husband’s masculinity...
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...strived to be accepted as manly, and Shakespeare's Macbeth is no exception. Shakespeare's Macbeth (1623) is about a man named Macbeth and his journey to gain power and his struggle to keep it. In the play Macbeth and Banquo meet three witches on the moor. The witches make a prophesy that Macbeth will be King of Scotland and that Banquo's blood line will rule Scotland even though he will not be King. Macbeth later kills Duncan, the current King of Scotland, and becomes King himself. Macbeth orders for Banquo and his son to be killed, but Fleance escapes. The longer Macbeth is king the more suspicious he becomes of the people around him and the more worried he is about securing his blood line as the ruler of Scotland. The play concludes with Macduff killing Macbeth, and Malcolm (the rightful heir and son of Duncan) becomes King. In Macbeth the definition of a true man can best be seen through gender stereotyping, reversal of gender roles, and the depiction of men who uphold the manly virtue. One of the most important views on being a true man is that of Macbeth's. This view can best be seen in the scene when Macbeth is talking to the murderers about killing Banquo. Macbeth asks the murderers if they are men. Naturally they respond, "We are men, my liege" (3.1.90.). But that is not good enough for Macbeth. He agrees that they are men because they are of the male gender: "in the catalogue ye go for men" (3.1.91). But for Macbeth manhood is not given to one at birth; manhood is a...
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...Shakespeare’s dramatic tragedy, Macbeth, was written in seventeenth century England but set in eleventh century Scotland. The play follows a young war general, Macbeth, who discovers from a trio of old witch sisters that he will one day become King of Scotland after being named Thane of Cawdor. Soon after hearing his prophecy, Macbeth is awarded thanedom from King Duncan himself. With his new given power, Macbeth plots how he will become King of Scotland, divulging to his wife, Lady Macbeth, the witches’ prophecy. Shortly after her husband leaves to overlook his castle, Lady Macbeth makes a prayer to the spirits asking them to switch her breastmilk to stomach bile, be filled with cruelty, and unsex her femininity because she is too weak as a woman to rule a country. In the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is malevolent, coldhearted, and questions her husband’s masculinity for not willing to execute the assassination of King Duncan himself....
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...Success in the Supernatural Susan Snyder quoted Shakespeare, author of Macbeth, publicly stating, “The moral universe of Macbeth has room for massive injustice” (209). Both the natural and unnatural worlds of the play throw the order of society into disarray. The natural world, relating to human nature and common sense, and the unnatural or fabricated world are shown throughout Macbeth. Because no one, especially women, can succeed in this unnatural world they’ve created, the remedy seems to disrupt this order, using supernatural and unusual techniques and methods. In Macbeth, it is expressed that the natural world is actually disrupted, while the men and the society within the context of the play fabricate the unnatural world. Expectations...
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...William Shakespeare, often called the English national poet, is widely considered the greatest dramatist of all time. They believe he was born April 23, 1564 around the day he was baptized, which was April 26, 1564. From roughly 1594 onward he was an important member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men company of theatrical players. Written records give little indication of the way in which shakespeare’s professional life molded his artistry. Al that can be deduced is that over the course of 20 years, Shakespeare wrote plays that capture the complete range of human emotion and conflict. Smith, Peter. The Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors. Vol. I. Ed. Charles Wells Moulton. Gloucester: The Moulton Publishing Company, 1959. 447. Talks about how Shakespeare as a child apprenticed his father as a butcher in the family trade. It describes how later on Shakespeare broke away from the family and relocated to London with his wife, Ann Hathaway, to write and perform plays. I am skeptical as to the level that Shakespeare actually disliked his family’s trade, as described here. He always gave prolix orations before slaughtering a calf, which makes me think he was not entirely opposed to being a butcher. Bradley, A. C. . "Shakespeare the Man." Oxford Lectures on Poetry (1909): 330-334. Bradley argues an interesting parallel between Shakespeare’s intense feeling expressed in his works and the “high-flown language of the time” (333). It is suggested...
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...William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, takes place in 11th century Scotland, and has its own portrayal of that society. Although it may not be entirely accurate, the society that Shakespeare develops has distinctive gender roles and societal expectations for each gender. In this society lives Macbeth, a military nobleman trusted by the king who eventually becomes king himself, but through a murder encouraged by his wife, Lady Macbeth. His reign is tainted with inhumane acts such as murdering the family of his former friends, and hiring assassins to kill one of his friends. At the conclusion of the play, Lady Macbeth dies from unknown causes, Macbeth is murdered by Macduff, another nobleman, and Scotland rejoices because Macbeth’s reign of terror...
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...created two of the most controversial heroes in literature in The Tragedy of Hamlet: Prince of Denmark, and The Tragedy of Macbeth. These are controversial due to their modus operandi, as...
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...The Prison of Marriage Each morning that we wake up, life presents us with many choices. Some people are conscious of these choices, others are not. Whether one is a college student in search of a major or the man in line at a deli, the opportunity for decision seems solely one’s own. However, the surrounding factors of that person’s life will inevitably affect the decision at hand. Often, without knowing it, we are placed in a role that life, in general, expects us to fulfill. Once we find ourselves in a role, it is difficult to displace ourselves from it, and as a result, we rely on this role to aid us in our decisions. Professor of psychology Philip K. Zimbardo finds that people are obedient in accepting roles assigned by others. Zimbardo’s “Stanford Prison Experiment” discusses male college students placed in a prison experiment and assigned the role of either “prisoner” of “guard.” Zimbardo claims to have “sought to understand more about the process by which people called ‘prisoners’ lose their liberty, civil rights, independence and privacy, while those called ‘guards’ gain social power by accepting the responsibility for controlling and managing the lives of their dependent charges” (365). Zimbardo concludes that the roles of guard and prisoner can be seen in many realms of life. Zimbardo suggests that sexism, racism, and shyness are, for many people, prisons of the mind. Furthermore, Zimbardo feels that marriage can be described as a prison: The physical institution...
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...Another way in which Shakespeare would have tried to impress his audience, mainly the monarch at the time (King James 1st) was through the character Banquo. King James believed himself to be a descendent of Banquo, therefore he was written to be a noble, wise and regal man whose good qualities tended to make some of the other characters, particularly Macbeth, envy him. King James 1 considered himself to be an expert on witchcraft, he wrote a book which stated that witches made a pact with the devil, so including the evil ways of the witches and showing them to be dark creatures that turn good loyal men into murderers would have pleased the King as that is how he viewed them himself. If you continue to look into Macbeth’s character, he starts to spiral out of control very quickly. He starts to fear betrayal, which is extremely ironic considering the amount he has already betrayed his king and his country. “But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo, stick deep; and in his royalty of nature.” Macbeth is worrying whether he can trust Banquo because of him witnessing Macbeth’s conversation with the witches; this is the point where Macbeth decides that it would be easier to kill...
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