Negative Femininity In Macbeth

“Male and female represent the two sides of the great radical dualism. But in fact they are perpetually passing into one another. Fluid hardens to solid, solid rushes to fluid. There is no wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman.”

-Margaret Fuller

Masculine and feminine traits are traits that belong to each gender. However, most people are a mix of the traits. Theses traits are either positive or negative and they can influence one’s decision or how one acts. In the play, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the main character, Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, go on a journey to become king, but it creates a path of destruction. Macduff, a lord, and Malcolm, one of the fallen King’s son, try and succeed at bringing back the kingdom of

Initially, Macbeth displays negative femininity, which then develops into negative masculinity. After the witches reveal to Macbeth that he will become king, he and Lady Macbeth create a plan to kill King Duncan. However, on Macbeth’s way to kill the king, he sees an imaginary dagger with blood on it, which causes him to start freaking out inside his head thinking, “Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives” (II.i.61). Macbeth has worked up the courage to kill the king, but he thinks the words “too cold breath gives,” meaning the more he talks, the more his courage dies. Macbeth begins to feel guilty for even imagining the murder of King Duncan when he says “heat of deeds”. Here, Macbeth’s insecurity and lacking of self-confidence display his traits of negative femininity. In fact, his feminine side gets him so emotionally fraught that he has to run off to Lady Macbeth because he is unable to finish off the plan on his own. He fully depends on Lady Macbeth for giving him confidence and telling him what to do. He lacks self-confidence because he knows

Once Macbeth tells her about the witches’ proclamation, Lady Macbeth informs him of a plan to kill the king. However after seeing that Macbeth was unable to complete the plan by planting the daggers on the guards, Lady Macbeth angrily commands him, “Infirm of purpose! / Give me the daggers. [...] ‘Tis the eye of childhood / That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, / I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal, / for it must seem their guilt” (II.ii.51-52 & 53-55). Lady Macbeth is very angry with Macbeth, saying that he is a coward and a child who is afraid of a dead body. She yells at him to give her the daggers, so that she can paint the faces of the guards with Duncan’s blood to have it appear, as though they are the killers. Lady Macbeth becomes enraged that Macbeth is unable to complete a simple task and is acting as an annoying little kid. She aggressively puts him down when he comes to whine at her that he is unable to finish the plan. Lady Macbeth is being very cold hearted and dominating and does not care about how Macbeth feels. She just wants to get the job done and have it done her way. She displays her strong negative masculine trait towards Macbeth, who is showing his negative feminine trait. However, Lady Macbeth's negative masculine side slowly deteriorates into a negative feminine side. Once while Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking, she appears to be washing her