How Are Women Portrayed In Macbeth

Eklavya Sehrawat ENG3UO Ms. Cheney April 27 2015 Exploring Gender Roles In Shakespeare’s Macbeth Although at the time of Shakespeare women were portrayed as lesser beings, Shakespeare still manages to portray them as strong and independent women. Throughout history stereotypes have not only decided the fate of men and women, but they have also decided how they act. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth gender roles are constantly challenged and reversed to give the reader a different perspective of the 17th century.

With social and cultural stereotypes in this era, men were viewed as more powerful while women were portrayed as weak. William Shakespeare tries to interpret the roles between genders by having characters of the opposite sex. In the play Macbeth, William Shakespeare uses rhetorical devices to demonstrate Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s switch in traditional gender roles, which arise from the consequences for each character’s actions and speech.

In William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, set in 16th century Scotland, women are portrayed as powerful with much influence on the males in the play. Shakespeare portrays women as powerful, they are seen as powerful because of the influence of Lady Macbeth on Macbeth to gain power in Europe. Another example is how the witches had supernatural powers as they told Macbeth his fate. The portrayal of women in the play are conveyed through both, Lady Macbeth and the witches. In Macbeth, women are powerful as both Lady Macbeth and the witches, have great impact on how the play is written.

In the story, Lady Macduff can be seen as accepting of her role in society and very passive. In the book, she says “Wisdom! To leave his wife, to leave his babes, His mansion and his titles in a place From whence himself does fly? (4.2.6-8)” This quotes shows how Lady Macduff expects her husband, the Thane of Fife, Macduff, to stay and defend everything he has instead of leaving it and going to England.

The play Macbeth, written by Shakespeare, describes Macbeth’s rise to power and the obstacles he faces on his journey. The witches prophesied his rise of power that will lead to him becoming King. He must make many drastic decisions that will lead to becoming king and powerful. Males often strive to obtain supremacy and glory. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, male roles are strictly defined as cruel and violent; however, not all men follow these standards. Male gender roles and the stereotypes they reinforce, may or may not define the way a male acts in society.

Behind every successful man there is a ruthless woman pushing him along to gain her own personal successes. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth causes Macbeths downfall. With the faults and lies of Lady Macbeth, marriage is Macbeth’s big mistake. Lady Macbeth turns his courageous conquests on the fields of war into butchery. Mangled by the blood-spotted hands of his wife he becomes a traitor to himself, the people around him, and even her.

As any reader of Macbeth will know, many people die because one mans ambition gets out of hand. This ambition was fueled by the gender roles that each gender is supposed to live their lives by. Women are meant to be good house wives; nurturing and caring for the family. Men are supposed to be dominant and strong; protecting the family. Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and young Siward all conformed to their gender roles and it led to their untimely deaths.

According to gender theory, society assigns certain roles for men and women. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, these gender roles play an important part in violence. Both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth appeal to the role of “manhood” as violent and aggressive in order to accomplish the murders of King Duncan and Banquo. Women are portrayed as initiators of crimes and are viewed as devious.So, throughout the play, gender roles provide a means for murders and viciousness.

Women in Power: How Stereotypes are battled in Macbeth In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, gothic themes contribute to stereotypical masculinity but not stereotypical femininity in the given era. Macbeth is technically the one who kills King Duncan and fights in wars, but Lady Macbeth has a large part in the decision-making process. Her clever and devilish ways make it easy for her to manipulate her husband into doing these terrible things to make sure they secure a place on the throne. The witches are also a part of this and play an important role overall in combating femininity in Macbeth. The witches, or weird sisters as they are often referred to as, are extremely powerful, they have immense control, and they have the ability to prophesize

Gender stereotypes are oversimplified generalizations about the roles of each gender. In the play Macbeth, the author, William Shakespeare shows these stereotypes through the characters and their conflicts and challenges. Throughout the play, we develop an understanding about how the characters’ perspectives on what manhood and masculinity means, plays a huge part in the decisions they make.

In the the play Macbeth written by Shakespeare, gender roles make a significant impact on all the events that occur throughout the play. However, gender roles in this story are different from what is prevalent in others. The gender roles in the play contradict what is common for the time setting. Ironically, the female characters possess masculine traits and vise versa for the male characters. These ironic characteristics cause many of the events in Macbeth, to spiral out of control.

Throughout history, men have always held the more masculine role, while women always held the more feminine role. William Shakespeare, an English poet, created a book known as Macbeth that conveys a message about how women do not have less courage than men, but seem to always be below them. Shakespeare’s Macbeth documents a man who commits multiple murders in order to gain power. Moreover, it equally focuses on his power crazed wife and her thrive for control.

In Macbeth, one of the most tragic and well known plays, William Shakespeare changes women’s part in society. During this time period, women are known to be both mentally and physically weaker than men. Women are called to be only housewives. Shakespeare reflected the image of women in society by giving the men bigger leads in his plays. Only in a few of Shakespeare's plays did he give women strong leading roles. Macbeth is one of the few plays where women play a more powerful role than the men. In Macbeth, he gives the women unusual traits like manipulation and betrayal. In William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, women like Lady Macbeth , the trio witches, and Lady Macduff portray non-feminine traits.

The author includes characters in Macbeth that epitomizes the standard, obsequious woman. One such character is Lady Macduff, whom Shakespeare portrays as completely dependent on her husband. When Macduff left to dethrone Macbeth, rather than worrying for her husband, Lady Macduff complained that he left “...his wife… his babes, his mansion and his titles…” because Macduff “...loves [them] not.” (Shakespeare 119). Shakespeare eventually kills of Lady Macduff to highlight her weakness and naivety, traits people believed to be commonly found in women (Shakespeare 124). Another similar character is the Gentlewoman. The name “Gentlewoman” in its own serves to create an image of a feeble, meek person who only moves only for others. When the

Generally, Macbeth is thought of as Shakespeare’s most feminist play. With a supposedly powerful female character and an inversion of gender roles, it is easy to see how this idea came into being. However, it is totally wrong. Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, is a play about an ambitious nobleman who would go to any measure to become king and retain that position after receiving a prophecy from three witches. At first, he is unwilling to resort to violence to become king but his wife, Lady Macbeth, manipulates him into doing so. Once the first murder is complete, he has found a thirst for killing and continues to kill various people until he is eventually killed and the rightful king takes his place. The claims of this being a feminist play stem from Lady Macbeth’s character and her relationship with Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is violent and evil, while Macbeth is originally too kind, showing a gender role reversal. Even so, there are many problematic aspects of Macbeth that completely negate the few progressive components in Shakespeare’s writing. Macbeth is a misogynist play because it promotes strict gender roles, gender non-conforming women are demonized and seen as responsible for men’s problems, and by the second half of the play, any innovative gender role reversals are themselves reversed.