Lady Macbeth Gender Roles

In the play, The Tragedy of Macbeth Shakespeare shows how Macbeth turns from being an average man to an evil one. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth both display characteristics that are not female or male. Throughout the play it is presented how gender does not represent a person for who they are and isn’t based on how they act. Lady Macbeth gains manlike roles that show her bravery but also a deranged mind. Unlike Lady Macbeth, Macbeth shows discourage and is doubtful. The gender parts particularly Lady Macbeth’s are appeared all through the play by her getting to be overwhelmed by ambition and manly qualities.

To begin with, Lady Macbeth plays the part like the male character in The Tragedy Of Macbeth, which is proposed as a more powerful
Macbeth is the main male character and he shows to have more of a feminine personality at first. The roles during the play are reversed with Lady Macbeth having manlike qualities and Macbeth not being like a man. “Too full o’th’ milk of human kindness.” (I.v.17) Lady Macbeth accuses her husband of having woman like traits. Also, Lady Macbeth sees Macbeth to be doubtful and uncourageous in the plan to kill the king. Unlike Macbeth, Lady Macbeth shows the strength and power to do so which is ironic because Macbeth is the man and he should be the one so determined to this act. The play, The Tragedy Of Macbeth portrays a world of male anxieties. Macbeth is seen to carry the traits of cowardice, weak, passivity, and vulnerability. Lady Macbeth is the one who manipulates Macbeth into becoming cruel and reaching the level of a man. “She taunts him with the adage of the cat that wanted to eat fish but didn’t want to get its feet wet, inferring he lacks heart, is effeminate, something considerably less than a warrior, and an untrustworthy liar, whose vows cannot be believed.”(Thompson) Lady Macbeth during the play tells Macbeth he should be woman due to the way he revels himself. If it wasn’t for Lady Macbeth, Macbeth would have never became so monstrous. Macbeth went from being loyal and pleasant to entering a wicked side of
Lady Macbeth becomes so drained and consumed with guilt. From the start Lady Macbeth knew what she was getting herself into and that committing a crime like that would make her feel shameful. After the murder Lady Macbeth tries to justify what her and her husband have done. She did this in order to do protect her and Macbeth so that no one will find out what they did. Multiple times Macbeth angers her because he feels guilty. Directly after the murder Lady Macbeth is already uncontrollably thinking about the misdeed that had occurred. The first thing that happens to her is she starts sleepwalking. During this she keeps reenacting the night of the murder. She also hallucinates the King's blood on her hands. " The Thane if Fife had a wife. Where is she now? What, will these hands ne’er be clean? No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that! You mar all with this starting.” (V.i.43-46) This truly indicates how much blame Lady Macbeth is feeling. She now knows the amount of an appalling wrongdoing she has done and that all the blood is staring her in the face. Also, she eventually becomes so insane that she takes her own life from having a huge amount of grief. Lady Macbeth was the person who arranged out the entire murder and at last turns out to be excessively overcome with guilt, making it impossible to try and handle it any longer. Lady Macbeth started off as a decent individual and in