Examine and Compare the Ways in Which Gender Is Presented in Macbeth.

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In the early 17th Century Shakespeare wrote a play named Macbeth, in this era men are described as Powerful and women are described as week. Macbeth is presented as strong and masculine but is controlled by his wife, Lady Macbeth. She is seen to subvert female gender stereotypes as she convinces Macbeth to murder the king and famously rids herself of her femininity. Lady MacBeth is evil, tempting and witch-like, through out the play. However, during the play we see her in two different ways. At the time when we first meet her, she is a brutally violent, power wanting woman and later on she turns out to be a shameful woman. At the beginning of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is very savage and vicious. She thinks nothing of killing King Duncan. She has no sense of what is wrong and right, and believes that it is perfectly moral to so the deed of murder. She states that to not go through with the deed would be horrible to yourself, and that you would be coward in your own eyes. “Wouldst thou have that which thou esteem’st the ornament of life, and live a coward in thine own esteem,” She states that if she was Macbeth and did not jump at this perfect opportunity, that if a child, being fed at her breast, where as Duncan is, King, She would tear it from her and “dash’d the brains out” to have the opportunity Macbeth had. This shows how mad and sadistic she was. She had absolutely no self- conscience, and thought nothing about the wrong they were soon to commit. However, it is later on in the story, that it is revealed to us that Lady MacBeth's conscience is strong. When sleep walking one night, Lady MacBeth begins blabbering about spots of blood on her hands. "Out damned spot! out, I say! One; two: why, then 'tis time to do't Hell is murky! Fie, my lord - fie! a soldier and afeard?" When at first she believes that "a little water clears

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