Macbeth And Gender Roles

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The Tragedy of Macbeth takes place in eleventh century Scotland, where gender roles and expectations were very strict. In medieval times it was not uncommon that the woman of the house’s role was to care for the children and the household. It was a man’s job to go off and fight for their country and have all control. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Shakespeare investigates the bond between power and gender roles frequently and as the story develops the traditional gender roles are shifted and reversed. In the beginning, the main character, Macbeth, is portrayed as a manly warrior. To many, including the king, Macbeth is the definition of brave. In the opening act, a captain of war speaks to King Duncan about a heroic fighter on the battlefield, …show more content…
She essentially created a monster out of her husband. Macbeth was stripped away of his humanity piece by piece as the story unfolds. As he slowly starts to lose his sanity, he begins to question how much of a man he truly is. Sooner or later he turns into a basic sociopath, one who does not feel remorse for harming others. Macbeth loses his ability to love his wife and she realizes this too late. This is the point where Lady Macbeth begins to feel guilt for everything they have done. The audience sees this heavy weight guilt upon her shoulders while she sleeps and begins sleepwalking. “Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand” (5.1.33-34), Lady Macbeth mutters in her sleep about the culpability she feels for all these terrible acts that have been committed. The guilt and pain becomes too much for her to take in the end as she commits suicide. We see how far gone Macbeth is when he is informed that his wife is dead and he in truth does not care, he only thought it was …show more content…
Would he have turned into the dreadful monster he became? Would Lady Macbeth have killed herself? These are all questions many people must be thinking. I believe that if Lady Macbeth did not pressure her husband to take fate into his own hands, sooner or later he would have reached the status of king by chance. It is highly possible that Macbeth would not have been such a terrible person if he was patient and he could have lived happily ever after with his power thirsty wife. Shakespeare is trying to attest to the reader that corrupted power leads to destruction. His main focus is not necessarily on the gender roles and their correlation to power, but he proves his message by associating the two. William Shakespeare is expressing that no matter your gender, man or woman, unhinged power gets the best of us and ultimately destroys
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