Emasculation of Macbeth

In the play "Macbeth", Shakespeare illustrates the evil temptations created by the lust for power. Shakespeare uses characters such as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to show the corruption caused by the desire for more supremacy. Macbeth, being a Scottish General and the Thane of Glamis, is superior to almost everyone and commands much authority. His appetite for power increases when the three witches prophesize his future, in which they foretell him to become the Thane of Cawdor and then eventually the King of Scotland. When the first prognosis becomes a reality, Macbeth realizes the rectitude behind the witches' prophecies. Lady Macbeth, his wife, also finds out about the foretelling. They both know that Macbeth is eventually going to be the king, but Lady Macbeth wants Macbeth to speed up that process by assassinating King Duncan. Ensuing a brilliant plan to execute the king, Macbeth succeeds to isolate him but refrains from murdering him. Lady Macbeth pressures Macbeth to murder Duncan, by questioning his manhood should he not follow through with the plan as promised. She challenges him to defend his manhood, asserts her "masculine" dominance and renounces her own femininity.

Through the degradation of Macbeth's manhood, Lady Macbeth entices him to kill the king. Because Macbeth backs away from the most opportune moment to kill the king, he falls lower in status from a man to a beast, and now has to reaffirm himself as a man to Lady Macbeth. Macbeth promises her that the carnage will be done, but he breaks that promise by passing up such an opportunity. He put his chivalry, and his honor of being a man on the line by making a promise to her. But since he is unable to keep his promise, he loses his honor of being a man. She castigates him by asking "what beast was't" that he turns into when he decides to let go of such an auspicious moment. To her only an animal, which does not live by honor, would have such an audacity to back away from the promise to a loved one.