Macbeth - Gender Construction and Roles

By Alastair Lagrange, Student

Macbeth reflects aspects of the hierachial and patrichical world Skakespeare lived in but also challenges the very basis of it's foundations. The text then reproduces a different kind of reality.

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Shakespeare lived in an era where women possessed few political and private rights. This was especially the case with married women who, under English Law, had no political power whatsoever. A model of male domination and female submission assumed the heirachy of the ruler and subject where women were viewed as 'unsuited' to rule over men. Renaissance women were to remain silent, avoid political discussions and to focus on their duties within their husband's households. Women were subjected to the will of men as men were thought to be greater morally, physically and intellectually. They were also thought to be more courageous, ambitious, determined, decisive, rational and refined - beliefs which remain, to an extent, entrenched in our social mores today. Shakespeare, as he was living in this hierarchical and patriarchal world, was subjected to this value system. His powerful play Macbeth, reflects aspects of this world but also challenges the very basis of it's foundations with the use of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and Lady Macduff. In this way, the text reproduces a different kind of reality.

Shakespeare pays much regard as to what it is to be a man and to possess masculine characteristics. Macbeth's masculinity is recognized and defined by himself and by other, influential people around him. If this manliness is to be questioned, it is not to be done on the battlefield. Here, he is proclaimed, by the Captain, Macdonald and King Duncan, to be a courageous, 'valiant cousin,' and a 'worthy gentlemen,' who 'brandished steel which smoked with bloody execution' and who 'unseamed (the slave) from the nave to th'chaps. The challenge against Macbeth's manhood, which upholds the typified male of the era, comes from beyond the military domain. Macbeth is plagued by an imagination, a conscience, compassion, sensitivity and, in some areas, he acts or thinks to act, as directed by heart felt emotions - a truly feminine characteristic at the time. The evil by which Lady Macbeth is possessed provides the trigger by which Macbeth's feminine 'faults' are targeted. After Macbeth's procrastination before the murder of King Duncan, it is clear to Lady Macbeth that he need be encouraged to commit the act. This is achieved through sexual taunting, powered by her own ambition, 'when you durst do it, then you were a man'. Macbeth responds to her gibe with a clear sense of himself as a man, and as a human. 'I dare do all that may become a man/who dares do more is none.' However, not content to accept the unquestioning admiration of his courage by his male associates, he elects to respond to his wife's accusations of 'unmanliness' further, through an act of destructive self-assertion. It is clear then, that Macbeth while typifying the dominating masculine image of the time, one of courage, decisiveness and strength, is also plagued with a significant weakness, that of femininity. This serves to both uphold the values of the Elizabethan era, and to challenge them.

An interesting comparison of masculine characteristics as Shakespeare creates them can be drawn using Macduff and Macbeth. Macduff, after the discovery of the murder of his family is turned to grief. He is advised by Malcolm to turn that grief to anger, to 'blunt not the heat but enrage it;' that this 'tune goes manly' Macduff replies that he shall do so 'but I must also feel it as a man.' A Renaissance man was typified as just this; one who must not only act, but act with a passion. This was not to be compassionate like those actions Macbeth exhibits as can be seen when he procrastinates before the murder of King Duncan. The 17th century classified Macduff's actions as masculine, it is therefore not surprising that he leaves his wife and children in a patriotic gesture. Throughout history, men have been those who went to war and fought for the good of their country. Macduff goes to England with this same purpose - to rid the 'fiend of Scotland' and cleanse his nation. Macduff then serves as a unique element within Shakespeare's play that upholds the socially prescribed model of renaissance masculinity. He is in stark contrast to Macbeth who, as said, is beset with femininity and as such challenges it.

In Lady Macbeth's desire to unsex herself, she seeks to provoke her husband to action by unabashedly attempting to portray herself as an example of the superior 'man.' In doing so she succeeds in inverting the standard of male and female roles as they were prescribed by Renaissance culture. Lady Macbeth submits to her husband neither publicly as a political figure, nor privately as the head of the household. She does not obey Macbeth's plea for 'peace' in the discussion of Duncan's murder. She does not submit to him or remain even contented. Her actions here are the precise opposite. She ridicules her husband's compassion with the assertion of her fear that Macbeth is 'too full o'th'milk of human kindness' and beseeches him to 'look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under't.' The reference to the 'milk of human kindness' draws attention to both Lady Macbeth's own femininity and her own attempts to subvert it. Lady Macbeth is using 'feminine' language in which to place her objections. In doing so, she makes Macbeth seem submissive and asserts her own masculinity. When Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to 'look like the innocent flower,' she is using a traditionally feminine Metaphor to undermine Macbeth's conception of his own moral strength and subordinating his will to hers'. In doing this Lady Macbeth is ignoring the gender roles and constructing her own version of reality. The image of the serpent connects Lady Macbeth not the renascence ideal of wife, but to the temptation of Eve and the fall.

Lady Macbeth discards her socially prescribed political role as easily as she discards her domestic one. She not only offers advice to Macbeth but also prompts him to commit regicide in her quest for political power. She recognizes that she can only wield the power of kingship through the agency of a well-placed husband. Acknowledging the restraints of a woman in the political world during the 17th century, Lady Macbeth encourages her husband to act on 'their' behalf. She openly defies the notions of the time that dictated a woman, especially a wife, should be silent, avoid discussing politics and should remain focused on household duties. Lady Macbeth's rejection of this place, and her position of decision maker not only usurps Macbeth's role as ruler of the household, but also of his kingdom. As a man named Greenblat said, 'regicide was close to the ultimate crime, a demonic assault not simply on an individual and a community but also on the fundamental order of the universe.' Because of the magnitude of the said crime, Macbeth takes time to consider the ramifications of his actions. Lady Macbeth however, does not hesitate and urges her husband onto the darker side of his nature while calling upon the spirits to 'unsex me here.' This displays an overt invocation of evil and an undisguised desire to kill the lawful king in a sheer presentation of opportunistic ambition - a very male characteristic during Shakespeare's life. Lady Macbeth's political and domestic stance openly defies notions that equated men with mastery and catalogued women to certain roles. It presents her as a female with strong masculine characteristics, even to the point where she uses the fact that she is female to feed her ambitions and desires.

Lady Macduff upholds her domestic and political roles just as Lady Macbeth rids herself of them. The architypical female of the era, she is a truly domestic woman with two children whom she reveres fervently. She is murdered in her household, implying that she has never ventured out of it into the political world, or any other. Lady Macduff does however have a peculiar inner strength; one which defies the stereotype of which she otherwise fits. She has a strength, a nobility, a courage and a loyalty; the murderers employed by Macbeth arrive at her castle slaying all that they can find. Lady Macduff only states 'I hope (my husband) is in no place so unsanctified where such as thou mayst find him.' Her loyalty to her husband, Macduff who is a man who 'must feel it as a man,' is unquestioning. Honest and pure, and in control of her own destiny, she stands for love, and for him. While awash with essentially female traits, it is undeniable that Lady Macduff embodies elements that, while different to Lady Macbeth, are of masculinity. This is difference is particularly evident when their reactions to imminent murder are examined. Lady Macbeth lacks the inner strength, honour and loyalty that Lady Macduff does not. When Birnham Wood descends upon her castle, Lady Macbeth takes her own life leaving Macbeth in a position with neither support or love, a blatant desertion - a trait that is not masculine, even by modern standards. In comparison, Lady Macduff questions why she should put up such a 'womanly defense' to say she 'has done no harm' and thus does not deserve to die. She stands up courageously and meets her death with dignity. To reckon that Lady Macduff is the same warrior as her husband, only constrained by the female restraints of the Elizabethan era is a plausible hypothesis.

In conclusion, the characters in every one of Shakespeare's plays do not follow the 'clear cut' gender roles prescribed by the context in which he lived. Instead, both male and female characters were given elements of each other's sexual characteristics. This challenged the preconceived notions of gender and posed the question 'what is it to be a man?' and 'what is it to be masculine?' The play Macbeth does this. However, while it supports in some areas, the hierarchical and patriarchal realities of the world in which Shakespeare lived, it also creates a unique reality of gender construction and role.


Reference/s
- Greenblatt, "Introduction," p. 2555.