Gender Roles In Kaylah Karwan's 'Lady Macbeth'

The invited reading of Shakespeare’s ‘Lady Macbeth’ depicting gender roles
By Kaylah Karwan
William Shakespeare ‘permeates almost all aspects of our society,’ and speaks ‘to us through his plays’ by commenting ‘on his life and culture as well as our own’ (Sir George Williams University, 2000). This is no different in his acclaimed play Macbeth, which tells the story of nobleman Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth who plot and murder the king of Scotland in order to obtain the throne, exposing “human nature, ambition, evil, gender, human relationships, kingship,” (Sir George Williams University, 2000) and supernatural forces. The play explores the ideologies and cultural assumptions of witchcraft, gender roles, the great chain of being, divine
rights of kings, role of women, religion and social hierarchy, reflecting Shakespeare’s society at the time. As demonstrated in the previous audio clip, his character, ‘Lady Macbeth,’ challenges, yet reflects the societal value and ideology of ‘gender roles,’ which leads to her demise. Through the extensive analysis of Jacobean society, the character construction of ‘Lady Macbeth,’ and the use of literary devices, it can be demonstrated that Shakespeare positions his audience to accept this invited reading- the replacement of natural order through the punishment of Lady Macbeth.
Written in the early 1600s, Macbeth was written in an era where witchcraft was practiced and gender roles, were strongly defined. It is the patriarchal power structure of the Jacobean era that saw the suppression of women, as they “were seen by many to be inferior to men during the Middle Ages,” (Women in the middle ages, 2001 – 2007). AnAAd “during the period in which Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, there were distinct societal expectations about the roles of men and women,” (Marotous, 2011). In the great chain of being, which heavily influenced their civilisation, these societal expecations are exhibited, with women falling below men. Although women were considerd inferior to men, many historians claim that ‘behind every ambitious man is a woman who helps drive him to great heights and extremes to further their own goals and prestige as well,” (The Life and Roles of Elizabethan Era Women, 2012) which is demonstrated in Macbeth, through Shakespeare’s construction of Lady Macbeth.
In Macbeth, the middle ages interpretation of the play, “explores questions about the roles of women through the character of Lady Macbeth, who is not content to take the traditional subjugated role of a wife,” (Sir George Williams University, 2000).
She is constructed by Shakespeare, to challenge the typical gender roles of the ‘Jacobean’ era, rebelling against the conventional ‘submissive wife’ stereotype. This presentation of her character has “attracted accusations of misogyny from critics of the time it was written because all the women in the play are manipulative and evil,” (Lady Macbeth Character Analysis , 2012). As an example, Lady Macduff simply questioned her husband going to war, and Shakespeare ‘killed her.’ For this reason, “the audience would have felt no sympathy for her and would have disliked her immediately due to her cruel ways,” (Tate, 2009). The audience of Shakespeare’s time interpreted her as one of his most infamous ‘femme fatale’” characters, and she is “the main instigator in the plot to kill the king,” (Lady Macbeth Character Analysis , 2012), as shown in this short clip. “Lady Macbeth not only subverts the idea of complete submission, but also decisively challenges her husband’s masculinity… [and ability as a lover, which would not have been taken lightly in Shakespeare’s time]" (Marotous, 2011), by saying “Art thou afeard, to be the same in thine own act and valour, As thou art in desire?” (1.7.3). These interpretations of Lady Macbeth,
become synonymous with her actions and behaviour in the tragedy.
The actions exhibited by Lady Macbeth throughout the play demonstrate how Shakespeare constructed her through his use of language and literary techniques. Although Lady Macbeth is equally as ambitious as her husband, she is unable to take action on the killing of the king herself, due to the social constraints of the time. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are individually incapable of committing real evil, “but together they form this symbiotic relationship in which each supplies psychologically what the other lacked and become a deadly combination,” (Harlan, 2012), which would have been thought of as abnormal when first presented. She knows her husband is “too full of the milk of human kindness,”(1.5.17) so she metaphorically becomes “the illness [that] should attend to it…” (I.5.20), and “the spur to prick the sides of his intent,” (1.7.26)
When first meeting Lady Macbeth, her manipulative and twisted nature is revealed, as she says “The raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan,” (1.5.36) demonstrating her desire to kill the king.
Shakespeare has cleverly manipulated dark imagery into these words and the symbolism of a raven, which has been known for centuries to resemble death. “This shows the audience how Lady Macbeth is a significant and powerful character who will drive the action forward though deceiving and manipulating others for her personal gain,” (Tate, 2009). Further on in her famous invocation soliloquy, “she wants the spirits to remove from her any feminine attributes that will interfere with her plan to murder Duncan,” (Sir George Williams University, 2000) and shouts, “Unsex me here and fil me from the crown to the toe top full of direst cruelty,”(1.5.39). These words exhibit her desire to be the opposite of the traditional, stereotypical wife and mother figure, as “she seeks to subdue her feminine characterisitcs in order to become more masculine,” (Marotous, 2011). By calling upon the spirits rather than god, her invocation aligns her with witchcraft, challenging not only gender roles, but the great chain of being as well, sealing her fate for good.They also resemble the literary device of dramatic irony, “because Macbeth, who has excelled in military prowess, is conflicted about committing murder,” (Sir George Williams University,
2000).
However, when the pair succeed the throne, the gender roles slowly reverse to the traditional roles of their society. Although Lady Macbeth seems to have let go of her feminine attributes, when she states she could “dash, her babes brains out,” (1.7.58), this reversal can first be demonstrated through Lady Macbeth’s womanly weakness when she manipulates her husband to kill the king, as she is unable to because he resembles her father. Another example is when she tries to be apart of Banquo’s murder, and Macbeth says, “Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, till thou applaud the deed,” (3.2.6), which is the first time he excludes his wife from the decision making, marking the starting point of her demise. Through the imagery of light and darkness, her marginalisation becomes clear. At first she asks, “Thick night to come with the smoke of hell, so her knife might not see the wound it makes in the peacefully sleeping king,” (1.5.3) which “seems to correspond to the evil or "dark" act she plans to commit,” (Light and Darkness, 2012). Towards the end of her life though and through her descent into madness, she insists on always having a candle around her as when she called on the spirits, she heavily implied light offered protection from evil by saying “Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,”(1.5.51). To Lady Macbeth, the candle symbolises a protection against the evil forces she herself summoned, “turns out, though, that such candlelight doesn't do her much good – she's too far gone and ultimately kills herself,” (Light and Darkness, 2012). Shakespeare cleverly intertwines this with dramatic irony as Macbeth responds to the news of his wife’s suicide by proclaiming “Out, out brief candle” (5.5.3) which acts as “a metaphor for her short life and sudden death,” (Light and Darkness, 2012). Shakespeare also applies literary techniques and behaviours of other characters to make more sense of Lady Macbeth.
The play, established that Lady Macbeth had cleverly built herself a reputation as the ‘perfect wife,’ through her duplicitous nature and biblical allusion of looking like “the innocent flower but being the serpent under it,”(1.5.66). On first arriving to their castle, King Duncan refers to her as an “honour’d hostess,” (1.6.10), not seeing through her submissive female façade. After the murder of the king, Lady Macbeth demands to know what happened but Macduff says, “O gentle lady, ‘tis not for you to hear what I can speak: the repetition in a woman’s ear would murder as it fell,” (2.3.12) as he assumes that women are far too delicate for such matters and that she is above suspicion. And while at first, Macbeth adores and listens to his wife, referring to her as his “dearest partner of greatness,” (1.5.11), implying a marriage of equality, after the first murder, he too begins to resent her and shows no remorse when she commits suicide as when hearing about her death he says, “she should have died hereafter; there would have been time for such a word,” (5.5.16) meaning that he has no time for the one he used to call “My love” even when she is dead. These interpretations of other character’s opinions of Lady Macbeth assist in positioning the audience to accept the invited reading of her character.
Shakespeare has expertly positioned “his audience through the downfall” of Lady Macbeth, “involving the audience in the hero’s pain and suffering as well as his or her mistakes,” (Sir George Williams University, 2000).He employs certain literary techniques into Macbeth to expertly weave the character of Lady Macbeth and position the audience to view her as a very cunning and manipulative woman, who doesn’t get away with delving outside the realms of the traditional gender roles. After her and Macbeth have been crowned king and queen of Scotland, she begins to see blood on her hands, erratically rubbing them, and exclaiming to her doctor, “yet here’s a spot,” (5.1.27) - symbolically motioning to the audience that she is overwhelmed with guilt of the murder. This is an example of dramatic irony, as after the murder of Duncan she says to her husband, “a little water clears us of this deed,” (2.2.65), although she spends the last half of the play ‘washing’ her hands, stating “will these hands ne’er be clean?” (5.1.43) While at first she is shown as manipulative, the roles of her and Macbeth become reversed and she receives no assistance from her husband. She begins to fit the bill as a typical Elizabethan woman and suffers a fate of suicide as she is unable to live with ‘the blood on her hands.’
Lady Macbeth challenges yet reflects the societal value of ‘gender roles,’ by a number of literary techniques utilised by Shakespeare to enrapture the audience. At first audiences interpreted her as a character that challenged the social norm, yet as the play progressed it became evident this was not without ‘punishment’ and she was confronted with the fate of death. Lady Macbeth’s “transformation (from a powerful and "unnaturally" masculine figure into an enfeebled woman) is significant insofar as it re-establishes a sense of "natural" gender order in the play,” (Lady Macbeth and her husband, 2012), reflecting the societal beliefs of the time.

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