Gender and Manliness in Macbeth

Abstract

Macbeth has remained one of the most fascinating works produced by Shakespeare which is why commentators have analyzed it from multiple dimensions. This paper analyzes the gender roles that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, and Macduff and Lady Macduff perform during the action of the play. It traces how the concept of manhood in the sixteenth century hierarchy of gender roles is challenged and defended by the mentioned couples respectively. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth display a deviation from the gender roles already established in the then society. They defy the stereotypical gender roles between a dominant husband and a submissive wife which were quite common in medieval times. In contrast, Lady Macduff and Macduff reflect the established equation of gender roles as per the norms of the society they lived in. In the course of the play, the notion of manliness has been challenged, and reshaped throughout the action of the play; however, in the first part, it is mainly reduced to inhumaneness of character and blind aggression. The aggressive and inhuman ideals of masculinity are countered in the second half of the play with the focus shifting to Lord and Lady Macduff.  The playwright shifts the audience’s attention to these two characters at a point when Lord and Lady Macbeth appear to fail in their “perverted” way of life. However, at the end of the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s faulty sense of gender expectations stops them from differentiating between manliness and monstrosity, which ultimately transforms them from becoming a worthy gentleman and honorable lady.