Macbeth (Gender)

Question 1

How does Macbeth present female gender roles through character of Lady Macbeth?

Answer 1

-gender is pivotal, Shakespeare both adheres to contemporary notions of gender and subverts them.
-Shakespeare briefly subverts expectations of the time via presenting Lady Macbeth as a powerful woman who forces her will on to her husband
-however, through lady Macbeths downfall, Shakespeare seems to propel the argument it is unnatural for woman to have power over men and those who try to break from the Jacobean confines of gender will be punished
-By presenting Lady Macbeth as a villain, Shakespeare ultimately conforms to the gender expectations and of the time

Question 2

What is the context for female gender roles of the time?

Answer 2

-the play was written during the Elizabethan era in which attitudes to gender were particularly rigid and patriarchal
-woman were subservient to men, unable to own property, support themselves financially and had little to no education and therefore had no means of improving their circumstances

Question 3

What is significant about Lady Macbeths line ‘They met me in the day of succession’ in Act 1, Scene 5?

Answer 3

Lady Macbeths first words are not her own but Macbeths showcasing although she is powerful and forces her will upon her husband by the gender expectation at the time, she is viewed as beneath and the property of her husband by the world

Question 4

What quotations are significant during Lady Macbeths malevolent Act 1, Scene 5 soliloquy in which she calls on spirits?

Answer 4

‘Unsex me here’
‘Take my milk for gall’
‘Make thick my blood’

Question 5

Analyse ‘Unsex me here’
‘Take my milk for gall’
‘Make thick my blood’ from Lady Macbeths Act 1, Scene 5 soliloquy?

Answer 5

Lady Macbeths forthright and cunning nature contradicts Jacobean stereotypes however her language conveys she is symbolically casting out her ‘feminine weakness’ asking for the strength of a man

Question 6

How would the reaction to Lady Macbeths power, influence and intelligence differ from a Jacobean audience to a modern one?

Answer 6

Jacobean= find these traits unnatural and unbecoming of of a woman
Modern= sees admiration in these traits and respects her feminist defiance of the gender norms of the time