Macbeth, a Shakespearean play that is an ultimate portrayal on how the thirst for power drives a man to murder his friends viciously. Shakespeare takes his audience on a tragic yet unexpected journey with the characters in Macbeth; which includes the ‘valiant’ Macbeth himself and his incredibly driven wife, Lady Macbeth. The ambitious journey the married duo take to overthrow any possible heirs and withhold the crown of Scotland displays a sense of evil and villainy. Similarly Stevenson portrays an essence of ‘pure evil’ and villainy via the characterization of Mr Hyde in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (DR J and Mr H). Stevenson reiterates a sense of wickedness by clearly comparing the depiction of Dr Jekyll; a highly respected socially noted aristocrat with his inner ‘monster’ Mr Hyde; a malicious, immoral creature with no values.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the scenery of ‘thunder and lightning’ creates a murky
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This is demonstrated in the quote ‘unsex me here’ this is effective because it portrays how disturbed Lady Macbeth feels about her femininity. Shakespeare has made this concept very relatable to the audience as the play was performed in front of a patriarchal society where sexism and gender inequality existed. This use of monologue is effective because it expresses her intense need and want to become a man so that she can physically and mentally vigorous and strong to assist Macbeth to overthrow the monarchy. The audience can also feel a sense of irony in the way Shakespeare has portrayed Lady Macbeth because a woman of that era wouldn’t have been courageous enough to be so strong minded and assertive. Shakespeare’s effective use of irony to establish Lady Macbeth’s character adds further emphasis on how wicked and immoral she is as a person; essentially presenting her as an evil person. Opposite to a patriarchal view of a gentle, quite female who listens to her father or
Stevenson writes ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ with the intention of showing the reader the duality of man and explores this through the juxtaposition of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In this novella, Stevenson also uses the environment and setting of the story to represent the contrast between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
The correlation to the dress of the day is very interesting, as men would be in colorful, exuberant and tight outfits, resembling women's wear. This reduced the esteemed masculinity for some males, and Macbeth is obviously feeling similar emotions, though his dress is more ancient. It is more the feeling conveyed by an actor that the audience would receive. This almost comic irony becomes important in the following scenes, as Lady Macbeth winds up to sucker Macbeth into killing Duncan so that he may be king and she may be queen. In addition, her attacks on his manliness reflect her character, as a man is playing it. In essence, a man, playing a woman, is making fun of the incapacity of the penis of a man dressed like a woman.
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.
Macbeth is a dramatic play which tells the story of the downfall of a ‘Nobleman’ who becomes a ‘tyrant’. In Act one Shakespeare introduces the characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth using a range of dramatic devices.
Macbeth by William Shakespeare brings about one of the most controversial topic of the gender portrayal in a play. During Shakespearean times, women were considered as the weaker sex, physically and emotionally. On the other hand, men were seen as the dominant sex that is expected to be the head of their households and a strong figure. Unlike this stereotypical representation of men and women, Shakespeare introduces the reversal of gender roles in his play. Shakespeare’s portrayal of the relationship and characteristics of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth diverged from the stereotypical representation of both men and women. The author, William Shakespeare’s use of reverse gender roles which contradicted with the traditional gender roles, is what
Shakespeare’s Macbeth portrays evil as a perversion of human nature through Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s betrayal of Duncan and the repercussions of their actions. Murdering Duncan is not the best way for Macbeth to gain the power promised to him, he and his wife fall into a downward spiral that ends in death.
The most notable scene where Shakespeare conveys this is Act 1 Scene 5. Lady Macbeth says, “unsex me here”, demanding elimination of all womanly attributes. She adds, “take my milk for gall”. This demonstrates she is reluctant to be a nurturing, mother figure. She thinks femininity is useless; she could accomplish more as a male. In the Elizabethan/Jacobean era, women were often subjugated – made to submit to and follow men, regarded as weak and in need of protection. Given no control, women were forced to stay home and bear children. Lady Macbeth yearns liberation from these stereotypes and standards. Her authority cravings lead her to tell Macbeth, “Leave all the rest to me”, seeking dominance. Macbeth is essential to succeed so she could be interpreted as somewhat manipulating him into committing larger crimes – namely
Lady Macbeth embodies the ideals of masculinity because she manipulates her husband to kill the king Duncan so she and her husband can have all the power to be king and queen and to manipulate people so they can be by their side. For example the text states, ¨Marriage counseling to solve the issues of our relationship? What issues? Just kill Duncan so I can be Queen already’’(Shakespeare #). This quote shows that Lady Macbeth takes advantages of her husband because he only tell her his secrets to her, so that is when Lady Macbeth takes advantages of her husband and manipulates her husband to kill king Duncan so Lady Macbeth and Macbeth can been the next king and queen. Accordingly, at the beginning of the sentence, this evidences shows Lady Macbeth manipulates people by taking advantages of them. From my point of view Lady Macbeth manipulates people so she can be the next queen and she also takes advantages of people that trust her so that is when she gives them advice so they can do things that favor Lady Macbeth by being the next queen. For instance ¨Lady Macbeth outraged, calls him a coward and question his manhood, ¨´when you durst to do it,´ she says then ´you were a man´¨(Shakespeare #) .This quote shows that Lady Macbeth also manipulates her husband in many ways like making him think he is not man because he is scared to murder king Duncan and making him think a man is who doesn't have fear to do something that might have dangerous consequences, so then he decides to murder Duncan. In conclusion in “Macbeth “the
Situated at the the start of the play, Shakespeare exposes Lady Macbeth’s masculinity through her dialogue. Lady Macbeth has just received the news that Macbeth has been named Thane of Cawdor, during in which she said, “Come you spirits...Unsex me here.” When Lady Macbeth uses the words, ‘unsex me’ she is exhibiting that
By the end of the play, it is notable how hyper masculinity deteriorates the main characters of the play. The characters of Macbeth inhabit a world of darkness and uncertainty as hyper-masculine ideologies are introduced to them. As one reads throughout the play, it’s easy to pick up on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's excellent job at portraying the personification of humanity’s identity crisis with gender. Without proper gender roles, humanity begins to deteriorate, so the struggle that takes place in this play is of significant concern. With the creation of the Macbeths, Shakespeare diminishes everything that what was considered to be human nature. Macbeth becomes unstable because he cannot please such an unsatisfied woman, so he feels the need to take on an artificial hyper-masculine role but because of this is too torn to
Edna Ferber, an American novelist, comments, “Perhaps too much of everything is as bad as too little” (Ferber). The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Stevenson and Macbeth by William Shakespeare both illustrate this idea. In Stevenson’s novel, a scientist named Henry Jekyll experiments with the phenomenon of separating one’s dual nature, which unfortunately kills him because he is not able to take control of his evil side. In Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, a Scottish general, is consumed by the desire to become king and kills many people to achieve his goal, after three witches tell him about his future. Through the use of conflict, both literary works demonstrate how excessive ambition corrupts the
In Robert Stevenson’s novella ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, Dr Jekyll transforms from the handsome “well-made” scientist into the devilish, sinful and villainous Mr Hyde. Similarly, in William Shakespeare’s tragedy ‘Macbeth’, Macbeth transforms from a patriotic hero into a malevolent tyrant. By comparing the thoughts, intentions and actions within the protagonists’ behaviour, it is clear that both Stevenson and Shakespeare present the theme of change from good to evil within their stories. At the start of ‘Macbeth’, Macbeth is presented as a valiant, noble character, but Shakespeare uses varied language to foreshadow his downfall.
This helps William Shakespeare achieve the idea that Macbeth lacks manliness. The author is revealing the tone and motives of the two when we see that Lady Macbeth seems to be the more assertive one and takes on the male role, which Macbeth was a lot more reluctant as a female sometimes is. In this, we are able to understand that if the roles were switched Lady Macbeth would have gotten the killing over with. We see that Macbeth has a conscience when he sees Banquo’s ghost in the end of scene 4. “Put quote here” William Shakespeare does this to enhance the conflict in The Tragedy of
It is interesting to note the importance of gender in the personifications of evil in Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is as obsessed with her gender as her evil. When she implores evil to "unsex" her, to take her "woman's breasts for gall" she reveals the sense of powerlessness and weakness she feels. Being a woman makes her dependant on her husband for her social
Lady Macbeth wants the spirits to “unsex [her] here” not because she wants to be transformed into a man, but rather she desires the same male characteristics as her husband which are associated with violence. Alfar claims, “If she does indeed transgress her gender to become more manly, therefore, it is because she must do so to reflect—as conduct manuals demand—the bloody desire of her husband (181).