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Essay On Masculinity In Macbeth

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Progression IV Throughout the first several acts of Macbeth, we see Lady Macbeth using her husband’s masculinity against him. She even goes as far as to drive him on using the notion that if he does not continue forward with their plan, then he will be less of a man because of it. “What beast wasn't then That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more the man.” (1.7.46–51)
Professor Kiernan Ryan, has a similar interpretation of this dialog, as he states. “It’s the running battle between the Macbeths, however, that puts the key to the tragedy beyond question. It begins in the electrifying last scene of Act 1, when Lady Macbeth sneers at her husband’s reluctance to proceed with Duncan’s murder, casting doubt on his courage and virility. ‘I dare do all that may become a man. / Who dares do more is none’, Macbeth declares.” (Ryan 6-7)
Indeed, Lady Macbeth makes no secret, of the fact that she doubts that Macbeth is up to the task that they have decided to undertake. “Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way; thou wouldst be great; Art not without ambition, but without the

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