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Gender in Macbeth

Characters in William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth are often the opposite of their gender stereotypes. In other words, characters of one gender often act in ways that are expected of the opposing gender. It can be argued that the female characters of this play entice the male characters into violence and chaos, almost making Macbeth a misogynistic play. This is very evident in the character of Lady Macbeth, who, as a woman, is expected to be compassionate, kind and non-aggressive. She is the antithesis of these expectations, though, and is instead aggressive and often portrayed as mocking and manipulating her husband. Also, as a woman, she should have little ambition to achieve power, for that tends to be the mans role. Whether it be the societal expectations or a believed weakness, Lady Macbeth resorts to mockery and manipulation rather than violence to achieve her goals. She pushes her beliefs of manhood onto her husband, who at the beginning of the play, seems to be aware of wrong and right. Macduff has a bit of a different outlook onto manhood than Lady Macduff though. While he also sees his violence and need to fight as being manly, he knows to what point he should be using this manliness; he does not see his true emotions to be an act of femininity and weakness.
At the start of the play, Lady Macbeth tries to acquire what she believes to be manly characteristics, whilst her husband seems to be much too feminine, according to her, in order to commit a murder. In the passage where Lady Macbeth says, “Unsex me here, / and fill me from the crown to the toe top full of direst cruelty. / Make thick my blood.” (I. v. 48-50), she is speaking to herself after receiving Macbeth’s letter and the message that Duncan shall be coming over that night. She is asking the spirits to take away from the humanity that she supposedly acquires just from being a woman, and replace it with cruelty and anger: things that she believes a real...