In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth is an ambitious Scottish warrior who receives a royal prophecy from the three witches that he will become the King of Scotland. The first step in Macbeth's rise to power is the death of the current King, Duncan. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth contemplate carrying out Duncan's murder when visiting their castle, but Macbeth decides against it. To influence Macbeth into the murder, Lady Macbeth plays with the strict gender roles set by society. While initially, Macbeth appears to embody the ideal man, Lady Macbeth manipulates him by questioning his manhood, resulting in mayhem. Macbeth, urged by his wife, murders the King, takes over the throne, and kills more people out of fear. The play ultimately argues …show more content…
Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth by questioning his manhood while discussing their plot to kill Duncan. Initially, Macbeth seems uncertain if he can proceed with the murder, as he asserts, "we will proceed no further in this business". So, Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth into thinking he is a baby for refusing to kill the King. Lady Macbeth asks Macbeth, "Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valor As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life And live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting "I dare not" wait upon "I would," Like the poor cat i' th' adage? (1.7 43-49). Lady Macbeth argues that if Macbeth fails to carry out what he "desires", he will "live like a coward". The King of Scotland is the highest ornament in life, essentially Macbeth's desire and greatest ambition. Macbeth can only refute Lady Macbeth's insults by proving her wrong. As a result, many of the crimes Macbeth commits later in the play, such as murdering the King and killing Banquo, are an attempt to convince his wife that he is manly enough. Macbeth demands Lady Macbeth to stop attacking his manliness and says, "I dare do all that may become a man. Who dares do more is none" (1.7 51-52). Macbeth points out his bravery by showing he will do whatever it takes to prove his masculinity. Macbeth says he …show more content…
With the King dead, Macbeth becomes overly paranoid and imagines hearing a voice. Lady Macbeth scolds him for being afraid and childish by saying, "You do unbend your noble strength to think So brainsickly of things" (2.2 60-61). Macbeth drives himself insane by worrying about the repercussions of killing Duncan. The shame and paranoia consume Macbeth leading him to commit more murders to protect himself from suspicion and animosity. Macbeth proposes to kill Banquo due to a prediction that Banquo's sons will threaten Macbeth's throne. Unlike with the murder of Duncan, Macbeth lacks hesitation and says, "To act in safety. There is none but he Whose being I do fear; and under him My genius is rebuked, as it is said Mark Antony's was by Caesar" (3.1 85). Banquo's concern that the Three Witches' prophecy will come true causes him to question whether or not Macbeth murdered King Duncan. Due to Banquo's rising suspicions, Macbeth fears him above all others. Therefore, Macbeth hired assassins to kill Banquo and his son, Fleance. Macbeth proves he has lost all sympathy for life as he says, "I am in blood Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er. Strange thing I have in head that will to hand, Which must be acted ere they may be scanned (3.4 109). Lady Macbeth successfully rids Macbeth of the milk of human kindness as he loses all compassion and becomes
Lady Macbeth believes that being kind, loyal and worried about the outcome of actions are all acts that are questionable in terms of one’s masculinity. She very cunningly uses masculinity to manipulate him and get her
Lady Macbeth presents herself as a strong, driven, and ambitious woman who is ready to do what it takes to gain power and influence. This is shown when she instructs Macbeth to “Leave all the rest to me.” (1.5.71) as she takes the leadership of a gruesome action from her husband. Lady Macbeth even feels these masculine-presenting traits enough to question the masculinity of others, which is seen when she tells Macbeth that he was acting like a child by saying “the sleeping and the dead are but as pictures; ‘tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil.” (2.2.53-55) after he expressed his guilt.
In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, masculinity is a recurring theme. The play explores various aspects of masculinity like bravery, loyalty, and honor through characters like Banquo and Macduff and using Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to demonstrate a more destructive and toxic approach to masculinity. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is brave, loyal and respected. But his ambition to become king changes his idea of masculinity to one of strength, ambition and ruthlessness. Lady Macbeth takes an even more aggressive approach to masculinity, and pushes Macbeth into the murder of King Duncan and his own friend, Banquo.
At the end of Act 1, Lady Macbeth manipulates him into committing regicide on Duncan by questioning his masculinity, telling him to “be so much more the man” (1.7.51). By associating masculinity with violence, Lady Macbeth convinces him that murder is the right thing to do. Initially, this clicks in his mind, justifying his murder with fulfillment of his destiny, saying, “I have no spur / to prick the sides of my intent, but only / vaulting ambition” (1.7.25-27). However, once he ascends the throne, he becomes paranoid that he will be found out and orders the murder of Banquo and his son, Fleance. He continues this paranoia until his ultimate murder, as what initially seemed like simply following his masculinity led him to a heap of
When Macbeth initially confides in his wife, Lady Macbeth, about his thoughts of murdering King Duncan, she calls upon the aid of “spirits that tend on mortal thoughts” to “unsex [her]” so she may be filled with “direst cruelty” to prepare for the crime (Shakespeare 1.5.47-50). Lady Macbeth’s desire to have her gender taken away from her suggests that she believes her femininity is a weakness that prevents her from involving herself in murder and that she must become more masculine in order to become strong enough to do it. Later, on the night before Macbeth and Lady Macbeth put their plan to murder King Duncan into action, Macbeth’s good sense begins to return and he begins to have second thoughts about killing the kind ruler. However, Lady Macbeth chastises him, asking “what beast” had the courage to “break this enterprise to [her]”, and that “to be more than what you were” would make him “so much more the man” (Shakespeare 1.7.53-55, 57-58). Macbeth is successfully provoked into proceeding with the plan by having his pride and masculinity attacked.
The traits Lady Macbeth wish to portray also exhibit the traits needed to be a man. Lady Macbeth states, “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty make thick my blood stop up the access and passage to remorse”(1.5.47-51). In other words, Lady Macbeth is willing to give up her femininity to become a man so that she may in turn, possess manly qualities that would be unethical to possess as a woman. She wants to become a man so that her “blood [can be] thick”, and she can feel no remorse when having “direst cruelty”; all of these traits would help the plot to kill King Duncan. Furthermore, the traits Lady macbeth wishes to have are also the ones she wants to see manifested in Macbeth.
In every moment, Macbeth makes decisions based on what he thinks a true man would do. He can never escape his own fear of not being manly. His fear is shown even further in a later scene. After Macbeth has Banquo killed, he holds a large banquet for his friends. The gjost of Banquo attends, only visible to Macbeth, who screams, “What man dare, I dare.
In this time a man’s masculinity was all that he had and for someone to question it would have almost forced the man to prove himself. In the twenty first century this same idea of being a masculine man still exist. If someone questions a man’s masculinity they most often seek to prove them wrong or prove that they are hyper masculine. In reality Macbeth had no choice to be aggressive because aggression and violence are what identified someone as being a true man, without these traits Macbeth would have been demasculinized. His pride, self-worth, and ambition would not allow that to happen, therefore, to prove himself as a man he killed his friends to meet his own self desires and ended up paying the price for his ambitious
Macbeth by William Shakespeare is a play concerning the desire for power and the developing insanity that follows. Often Lady Macbeth rejects any raw emotion from Macbeth including reactions that were tied to femininity. Lady Macbeth abuses her power over Macbeth to manipulate him by challenging his masculinity. Any signs of sensitivity or remorse were cast aside and were regenerated with deranged reactions because that was more socially acceptable. The toxic masculinity strongly enforced by social standards and more so by Lady Macbeth results in Macbeth acquiring some demented characteristics.
In Macbeth’s soliloquy, he talks about Banquo’s “hath of wisdom” and how Banquo acts safely(58). This illustrates that Macbeth is afraid of what Banquo might do. This illustrates Macbeth’s ambition because he is not going to give up until he finds what he is looking for if he gets suspicious with Macbeth. This makes Macbeth very scared of Banquo because if Banquo finds out that Macbeth killed Duncan, Macbeth’s life is going to be hell and Banquo is immediately going to tell everybody in Scotland. Macbeth fears Banquo so much that he will “champion his utterance” and will battle anybody to keep his crown(77).
Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth, analyzes the tragic downfall of a man who pursued his prophecy given to him by three witches, and suffered the downfall because of it. Told his power was inevitable, Macbeth explores the idea of murdering the King to achieve his goal of becoming King himself. Macbeth continually faces this, contemplating the moral issue of committing murder to in turn, fulfill his powerful destiny. While facing this internal conflict, Lady Macbeth developes an influence over Macbeth as well. Driven by her own desire to be Queen, Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to commit the murder, by challenging his manhood and often reminding him that it is, in fact, his destiny.
Banquo keeps his thoughts to himself; he ensures to attend the dinner. Macbeth fearing of his friend knowing, that he killed Duncan and his line will become king; he is now becoming greedy in being king, although he felt regret murdering the current one, not too long ago. The “toxic masculinity ” motif reflects in Macbeth’s order to the assassins. When Macbeth commands whether the murderers could handle Banquo to his death, they reply "we are men, my liege" (III i 92).
As tragic as Macbeth becomes through the play, his paranoia is also a factor that leads to his ultimate downfall, morally and physically. Macbeth, now a traitor after the assassination of the king, is paranoid of anybody who may threaten his position or how he attained it. After killing the king, Macbeth’s conscience is guilt-ridden and he is no longer able to sleep peacefully. His only worry is that someone may be plotting his murder, just as he strategized the death of the former King. If there was nothing stopping Macbeth from killing Duncan and committing treason, who is to say that no one else will make the same decision, killing Macbeth? After becoming king, his first suspect is Banquo, because Banquo voices his scepticism in regards
Macbeth is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, which tells the story of Macbeth, a Scottish nobleman who lets his ambition lead him to attempt taking power in 11th century Scotland. After being told prophesies by three witches and encouraged to act on them by Lady Macbeth, he murders the then-king Duncan and takes the throne for himself. However, due to his greater ambition continuing with each defeat, this creates an unstoppable cycle that leaves Macbeth's own downfall at the hands of other ambitious people contending for control over Scotland aswell. Overcome by guilt and fear in his attempt at taking absolute power, Macbeth spirals out plot after plot trying desperately to ensure that there will be no one left standing between him
I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on 't again I dare not.” (Act II, sc ii, Lines 48-50). Macbeth is getting extremely paranoid and feels bad killing Duncan. Macbeths ambitions caused him to murder Duncan, but he also had Banquo murdered, and wanted to murder Banquo 's son, Fleance. Macbeth wants Banquo killed because he saw him as a threat; however, Banquo had been Macbeth 's friend and thought he could trust him. "