The Stereotypes Of Men And Women In Shakespeare's Macbeth
In, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the author uses the stereotypes of men and women to express the divide between sex and power of his time. The stereotypical woman of Macbeth’s time in history is assumed to be cowardly and weak, while men as the strong and powerful figures of their time. Therefore, many men emphasized their superiority by looking down and viewing being women as a bad thing, Banquo: “ You should be women, yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are one” (17). Banquo calls Macbeth a women because of his cowardness and ambitionless acts, yet he knows he’s not a women because of his looks and facial features. The strong and powerful stereotype of a man makes the impression of a typical man an encomium to the people of Scotland.
Macbeth’s physical appearance of a man and mental appearance of a woman makes him to desire to think of soly manly thoughts, Macbeth: “Prithee peace. I dare do all that I may become a man” (41). Macbeth’s fatal flaw is his lack of ambition in which accentuates a woman, so he desires not to be a cowardly woman, but a strong man. Therefore, Shakespeare uses gender roles to express the divide between sex and power.
Macbeth’s physical appearance of a man and mental appearance of a woman makes him to desire to think of soly manly thoughts, Macbeth: “Prithee peace. I dare do all that I may become a man” (41). Macbeth’s fatal flaw is his lack of ambition in which accentuates a woman, so he desires not to be a cowardly woman, but a strong man. Therefore, Shakespeare uses gender roles to express the divide between sex and power.