Macbeth Gender Roles

There are more than enough examples from Macbeth and Great Expectations to prove that “subversion of gender roles,” a term that describes someone acting in a way that is not expected from those of their said gender, is evident in both writing pieces. There are a number of connections between the women of the play and novel; this can be seen in their stern, powerful and leader-like and always changing personalities that a number of female characters share. For instance, Miss Havisham’s burning hatred for men that she implemented into Estella's mind, to Lady Macbeth’s level of ambition to have her husband become king. Others include similarities in levels of knowledge, even though they were considered “commoners” on a part of the social ladder
where a lack of knowledge is expected, and examples of how they use their high levels of knowledge to their advantage. This can also be considered evidence of subversion of gender roles; women at the time were not expected to be knowledgeable by society as they are now. Other connections would be based on the topic of visual appearance overall, with connections to how they portray themselves to other characters and the reader throughout. The women of these two works show an exceptionable amount of power, control and capability of holding a family together a number of times throughout the novel and play. A leading factor in this is their personalities- they spoke their mind, and were not afraid of the consequences. which happen to be very far from what was expected of them from women by society at the time.

Mrs.
Joe of Great Expectations is portrayed as a woman with a fairly short temper who did not have time to tolerate any nonsense from anyone, and Lady Macbeth of Macbeth as a woman who was kind to everyone she met, and was a force to be reckoned with while in closed doors. These two hardened women were both people of a more harsher time, where a so called “manly,” rough and tough personality (which, they both definitely have), was needed in order to survive. Neither of them were afraid to put up a fight. For example, with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s argument after he starts showing signs of wanting to back out of the plan to murder King Duncan, she brings up the fact that she would be willing to kill a baby the same way he said that he would kill King Duncan. Also, the scene in Great Expectations, when Mrs. Joe gets into a shouting argument with a co-worker of her husband named Orlick and has to get Joe to defend her and gets him to quickly beat him up in a match. This helps explain why Lady Macbeth and Mrs. Joe are sometimes considered the “men of the house,” or the “ones who wears the pants in their relationships,” which is usually expected of the man in the relationship, which becomes much clearer why this is once the behaviour of the men in the two relationships is
examined.

With such grandiose responsibilities must come a large amount of stress, and this is best seen in the characters Miss Havisham and Lady Macbeth, as the two both slowly fall apart as their lives continue. The two experienced many hardships throughout their lives: rejection, abandonment, guilt, and neither of them had the chance to turn their lives around or change their ways, because they both died before they could. They also died when their previous actions had come back to haunt them, which can be described as a “boomerang effect” of sorts. A good example of this would be Lady Macbeth and her slow and painful downfall into insanity, which begins with her aggressive pressuring her husband into killing King Duncan. With everyday that passes by, the thought of the murder slowly eats away at her sanity. She then descends even further with sleepwalking, and hallucinations that scare her and deteriorate her mental state. It then ends with her killing herself due to her not being able to handle the guilt she has to bear with everyday. “Shortly before Lady Macbeth dies, Macbeth broods over the ‘honour, love, obedience, troops of friends’ he has lost and cannot hope to regain. But this knowledge wins no ease for his heart. It does not raise him above the conditions that have ruined him. Macbeth, it is true, is no longer tortured as he once was, but freedom from torture has led only to the peace of despair in which he looks at life and denounces it as ‘a tale told by an idiot.’” (Shanely 00) All of this would not have happened if it were not for Lady Macbeth and her brutal personality, but she was only like this because she knew that Macbeth’s personality was not the type to be able to commit a murder, and because they were way too close to let it slip out of their hands. “It is mistakenly assumed that she is naturally cruel. Nothing could be farther from the truth. No woman, cruel by nature, could suffer as she suffered in the final scenes of her life.” ( Gerwig, 00)
Miss Havisham’s character is the way it is because of her tragic backstory that she never let go of, and changed her life forever.
It is also an important factor to many elements in Great Expectations, such as Pip’s story and character, Estella’s personality and future relationship with Pip, and so on. She does not have the best relationship with men, which stemmed from the man who she was supposed to marry but quickly he took off on their wedding money once he got a hold of her money, and this tore her apart. Based on her experiences, she thought it would be a good idea to raise her adopted daughter, Estella, in seclusion and to have a cold heart that cannot love. She was soon proved wrong, once Estella grew up and became aware of how Miss Havisham was treating her all these years. She also thought it was a good idea to trick Pip into thinking that she was his benefact, making him believe that she plans on having him marry Estella. But, again, was proved wrong, once Pip found out about about her plans. And they were anything but forgiving to Miss Havisham when they found out about what she’s been doing to them for all those years. She feels horrible and guilty for what she’s done, tries to get Pip to forgive her, and is engulfed in flames by a nearby lit fire. She later dies without being able to really redeem herself, like Lady Macbeth. The amount of stress Miss Havisham and Lady Macbeth had to deal with throughout, led them to do a number of things that they immediately
regret once their actions backfire, in which each of them did. But that does not mean they did not know what they were doing or are not smart, because they are both very knowledgeable in many ways, much like other women in the novel and play.

Great Expectations and Macbeth both have their own characters that show a much more ‘brainy’ side to their personalities, whether it is about strategy or wise advice. The women in particular have shown much of this, especially Biddy, Pip’s childhood friend, and Lady Macbeth, Macbeth’s husband. This is because of the many situations they get are involved in where they are able to show what they know and can do, and help themselves and others get out of whatever situation they are in. Their levels of knowledge goes against what was expected of those of their low status on the social ladder. Take Biddy for example.