Macbeth Research Paper

Patrick Grosso
English 3 Honors
Mr. Furlong
3/8/13

Image of Manliness and Equivocation in Macbeth In this play written by William Shakespeare there are many instances of manliness that come up. During that time the biggest things to men are how strong, courageous, and brace they are. However, it is not always a good thing to embody these characteristics if wrong decisions are made. These characteristics confused Macbeth deeply and many times in the play made him choose to do the wrong thing Equivocation, the idea of using ambiguous language is something that also confused Macbeth and made him clueless on what he had to do. Macbeth is a character that struggled with the idea of ambition and what a person can do to achieve success. Macbeth did not have any limits when it came to achieving success and when he did he was looked upon as a womanly figure. By viewing the idea of equivocation and the image of manliness in this play, it displays Macbeth’s morals and how lowered morals and lead to demise. Equivocation and the image of manliness that lead to Macbeth’s demise are seen through the challenging of Lady Macbeth, Macbeths senseless ambitious decisions, the three witches and also the righteous Macduff. All of these things are people or ideas that have to do with the image of manliness or equivocation that bring Macbeth to his demise. Lady Macbeth continuously challenges Macbeth on his manhood and decisions. Many of the evil things Macbeth does during the play, Lady Macbeth challenges his manliness on. Also whenever he wants to back out of something she uses the idea of manhood to convince him. She makes him colder and more confident or cocky throughout the entire play. In the beginning Macbeth blatantly wants to keep good morals and make good decisions but the constant annoyance of his wife calling him a coward changes that. For example right from the start Macbeth did not want to go through with killing the king. He tried to explain to his wife that a real man is loyal and honorable. He says a real man would not do something like that. She responds: "When you durst do it, then you were a man" (Shakespeare 1.7.49). This quotation shows Lady Macbeth trying to say Macbeth is not a man. She makes him feel like he is not close to being a man. This challenging of the manhood really hurts Macbeth and makes him choose the wrong thing that leads to the fall of a tragic hero. Macbeth does not want to be seen as less of a man to his wife and so he decides to do the morally wrong thing and kill the king. This image of manliness leads to the demise of Macbeth. This idea of becoming the courageous male torments the mind of Macbeth. It is something that eats at him and persuades him to make the decisions he does. Matthew Proser states “Eugene M. Waith believes that Mabeth’s ‘mental torment grows out of the conflict between the narrow concept of man as the courageous male and the more inclusive concept of a man as a being whose moral nature distinguishes him from the beasts’” (Proser 57). This quotation proves that the idea of being a man tormented Macbeth. It made him do some of the things he did not want too. Instead of being the morally sound male he wants to be the courageous heroic male. The person who makes him choose that path is Lady Macbeth who is always challenging his manly image throughout the first half of the play. That is not the only time Lady Macbeth questioned the manhood of her husband. Another time she did this was when she explained to a nervous Macbeth that backing down on a commitment is one of the most cowardice things a man could do. Here Lady Macbeth is calling Macbeth a beast one of the lowest things possible for wanting to take back his word: “What beast was 't, then, That made you break this enterprise to me” (Shakespeare 1.7.48)? This quotation one again provides evidence of Lady Macbeth challenging Macbeth’s manhood which leads to him making the wrong decision. Each time he wants to do something good for a change it seems as if Lady Macbeth brings up the idea of what a “real” man would do and he winds changing his mind. His wife challenging his manhood continuously torments Macbeth and has him always thinking about what he needs to do. Almost every time Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to do something it is an action that leads to his demise. She convinces him to do the wrong thing. In this quotation Jarold Rasmey states that the actions that Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to do are bad: “The curious thing about her exhortation is that its rhetorical force is almost wholly negative. Dwelling hardly at all on the desirability of Duncan throne, she instead cunningly premises her argument on doubts about Macbeth manly virtue” (Ramsey 288). This quotation proves to my argument that most of Lady Macbeth’s persuasion to Macbeth has mostly negative. She uses the manly image to make him do things for success which morally harm him and also lead to his demise as a tragic hero. Macbeth at first seems like he was a morally sound man and fought for his king and honor. But when the prophecy was told and Lady Macbeth kept pulling out the manhood card things changed a lot. He thought he wanted to become a “man” in the eyes of Lady Macbeth, following the steps that she said he must take to get there. Also every time he would get off track she would put him back in place by insulting him calling him a woman coward or beast. Although Macbeth did get persuaded by Lady Macbeth through challenging his image of manliness he still made many wrong choices. His idea of manliness is also something that lowered his morals and lead to his demise. He wanted to become something and could only achieve that by doing bad things. His ambition led to many senseless decisions that would sooner or later wind up hurting him. Macbeth is a character that let his emotions get the best of him. It is seen many times in the play where Lady Macbeth had to calm him down. After he killed the king he definitely lost control of his mind and wanted to prove his manliness to himself. David Schlachter states, “Macbeth, with his rather violent concept of manhood, was convinced that by murdering Duncan and satisfying his ambition he would be a better man” (Schlachter, Macbeth-Response). This quotation proves that Macbeth’s idea of manhood is wrong and it leads him to do the wrong thing. His image is blinded with violence and dominance. His image makes him a person that is not someone to look up to. Throughout the novel Macbeth becomes more and more of a person that should not be a leader. Simply, he becomes a tyrant that wants to control his people instead of being a fair king. He becomes this bad leader because he follows his skewed image of manhood and ambition. He feels that the more powerful he becomes that better of a man he is. This idea is wrong and leads him to make senseless decisions. The longer Macbeth was king the more of a man he felt. He believed that he was man and did not need the convincing of Lady Macbeth, he began to make his own decisions. One of his decisions that he made was the murder of Banquo. He convinced the murderers that this act of killing Banquo will make them men. He basically does the same thing Lady Macbeth does to him. Here Macbeth tells the murders that this murder is a step towards manhood: “"Now, if you have a station in the file, / Not i ' the worst rank of manhood, say” (Shakespeare 3.1.101-102). This shows Macbeth trying to persuade the murderers to kill Banquo. To do this he brings up the image of manhood and tells them by completing this act they will become men. He asks them to search their manhood to have the strength to commit the murder. Ironically Lady Macbeth did the same thing to Macbeth when she convinced him to kill the king by bringing up his manhood. This decision by Macbeth to kill Banquo leads to his demise because it makes people curious. Everyone starts suspecting things when Banquo is dead and Macbeth is talking to random people. The witches in the play display equivocation a very important factor. The equivocation in the play is something that confuses and hurts Macbeth. The things that the witches tell him are not exactly true and this screws up Macbeth’s mind and manliness. Equivocation by the witches is something that leads to the demise of Macbeth. For example Alfred Harbage states, “Macbeth has betrayed himself to the equivocal and the illusory”(Harbage 103). This quotation proves that equivocation in the play hurts Macbeth and leads to his demise. He believed in to what the witches said to the core even though their language was ambiguous. Also equivocation factored into the image of manliness to Macbeth. The more and more he learned from the witches, the more he became courageous or “manly”. He felt like he was untouchable and felt like he was one of the greatest men that have ever lived. Equivocation from the witches is evident at the end of the play. Macbeth learns many things about what the witches really meant. Another example of where Macbeth proves to be over confident and manly is when first confronted by Macduff. He feels as if nothing can touch him and is really not nervous at all. He truly believes what the witches said and that he cannot be killed by someone born. Macbeth when confronted by Macduff states, “I bear charmed life, which must not yield To one of woman born” (Shakespeare 5.8.15-16). This quotation proves how confident Macbeth was that he could not be killed. Even when confronted by skilled fighter with a sword he was not nervous. This confidence leads to the tragic death of Macbeth. In the play Macduff becomes the true ideal image of a man. He is not a violent and cruel tyrant like Macbeth, but however he is a leader and peacemaker. Macduff truly only wants to make his country the best as it can be. Seeing that Macbeth is ruining his own country it infuriates Macduff and he knows that he must make a stop to it. Macbeth is a true man, someone who is courageous and fights no matter the odds. Many men have the fled and others have been killed, Macduff does not let this affect him and he knows he has to be the one to bring down the tyrant. The image of manhood in Macduff is clearly evident in this play. It is also clear that Macduff is more of a man than Macbeth and that allows him to win. Macduff does not think about his own desires but what is good for his people. In Shakespeare’s plays, usually the masculine figure has the most power and respect. Although Macbeth is king right now that will be short lived. An example of Macduff’s real manliness is seen here: “"I shall do so; / But I must also feel it as a man" (Shakespeare 4.3.220-221). This quotation proves the manhood of Macduff but it also shows that he is emotional. He does not hide his emotions and lets people know what he stands for unlike Macbeth who is very secretive. Here is a supporting an example of how important masculinity is to Shakespeares plays: “In Shakespeares plays sex and gender are crucial determinants of human identity and political power” (Hermann 4). This quotation shows how important manliness is. Macduff being more of a “true” man to Macbeth is a big reason to Macbeths fall. Shakespeare is not going to keep an unfit man who only cares about his own desires stay on top of the political power. Sooner or later somebody like Macduff will come along and save the country and bring his people to peace. Macbeth is a man that is confused on the idea of manliness and it really skewed his decisions and choices. He did not understand what it meant to be a man and that leads to his demise. By viewing the idea of equivocation and the image of manliness in this play, it displays Macbeth’s morals and how lowered morals and lead to demise. Equivocation and the image of manliness that lead to Macbeth’s demise are seen through the challenging of Lady Macbeth, Macbeths senseless ambitious decisions, the three witches and also the righteous Macduff. Finally, being strong and ruthless are not the qualities of a real man, but being a leader and caring for people is.

Works Cited
"David Schlachter." Macbeth-Response. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2013.
Harbage, Alfred. Shakespeare: The Tragedies: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1964. Print.
Herrmann, Katharina. "Gender Politics in "Macbeth"" Gender Politics in "Macbeth" N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2013.
Proser, Matthew N. The Heroic Image in Five Shakespearean Tragedies,. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1965. Print.
Ramsey, Jarold. "The Perversion of Manliness in Macbeth." JSTOR. N.p., 1923. Web. 04 Mar.2013.
Shakespeare, William, Barbara A. Mowat, and Paul Werstine. The Tragedy of Macbeth.

NewYork: Washington Square, 1992. Print.

Annotated Bibliography
"David Schlachter." Macbeth-Response. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2013.
In this website, David Schlachter wrote a critique about the manliness in Macbeth. He explains how Lady Macbeth’s and Macbeth’s ambitions lead to their demise. Both of these characters let self-desires get in ahead and they eventually die from the moral consequences of them. This source really helped me prove that Macbeth being convinced to become a man led to his demise. It allowed me to prove the utter challenging and persuasion of Lady Macbeth.
Harbage, Alfred. Shakespeare: The Tragedies: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1964. Print.
This book is manly about the tragic fall of Macbeth. It shows how Macbeth’s evil desires controlled him. This book also talks about all of the deaths in the play like Lady Macbeth’s suicide and how it affected Macbeth. Also it explains the equivocation in Macbeth especially with the witches. It shows how equivocation really confused and hurt Macbeth. This source helped me because it allowed me to prove the equivocation in the play and how it hurt Macbeth and lead to his tragic fall.
Herrmann, Katharina. "Gender Politics in "Macbeth"" Gender Politics in "Macbeth" N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2013.
This online book talks about the power of masculinity in Macbeth. It explains the stereo-types of woman and how they are looked down upon. It also explains how the men in this play are power hungry and ambitious. It talks about how some ambitions lead to downfall and how sex determines identity. The man will always have to be the strong and courageous hero in these novels. This source really helped me with my topic because it really pointed out the image of manliness and what this image of manliness does. It also shows that gender roles get stereotyped and pre-judged so it is hard to set a character path.
Proser, Matthew N. The Heroic Image in Five Shakespearean Tragedies,. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1965. Print.
This book really looks into detail on the heroic image of Macbeth. It explains that Macbeth really wants to be ideal heroic man. He discusses the warrior image of characters in Shakespeare. One of the essays really discusses about the manly image in Macbeth, from Lady Macbeth wanting to unsex herself to Macbeth trying to become the ideal man. This source really helped me because it gave me a lot of information on the manly image in the play. It showed and gave examples of Macbeth trying to prove himself as a man to his wife and his people.
Ramsey, Jarold. "The Perversion of Manliness in Macbeth." JSTOR. N.p., 1923. Web. 04 Mar.2013.
In this article Ramsey discusses if Macbeth really had manly virtue. He discusses if the image of manliness is really seen in the play. Macbeth shows his manliness through war and violence. It explains how his manliness lowers his morals and leads to his demise. It also discusses the challenging of Lady Macbeth and how she always brings up his manhood. He explains how Macbeth gets more and more in humane. This source helped me because it allowed me to understand the challenging of Lady Macbeth on Macbeth’s manhood. It also explains how the more she challenged him the more he made bad decisions which led to his demise.

Bibliography: "David Schlachter." Macbeth-Response. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2013. Harbage, Alfred. Shakespeare: The Tragedies: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1964 Proser, Matthew N. The Heroic Image in Five Shakespearean Tragedies,. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1965