Themes - Gender

Question 1

how do gender roles compare to the jacobean era

Answer 1

• gender roles were a lot more fixed
• there were fixed things that a man should do
• and what a woman should do

Question 2

what would happen to people who broke out of their gender role in the jacobean era

Answer 2

• they were frowned upon by society

- and sometimes even punished

Question 3

what theme is masculinity closely connected to in macbeth and what is the evidence for this

Answer 3

• violence
• the play opens with men battling and each other
• macbeth has proven himself valiant in battle as duncan called him a “worthy gentleman”
• his masculinity inherently links to bravery and military prowess

Question 4

what could the theme of masculinity alternatively be linked to and why

Answer 4

• cruelty
• lady macbeth wishes she could be unsexed
• “come you mortal spirits, tend to my mortal thoughts, unsex me here”
• she doesnt want her gender so she could have the ability to murder duncan

Question 5

what quote from macbeth says that lady macbeth should only give birth to boys and why

Answer 5

• “thy undaunted mettle should compose Nothing but males”
• because she is so ruthless and calculating
• and these traits were considered to be exclusively masculine
• so to macbeth it only makes sense that someone like her would birth a boy who would inherit those characteristics

Question 6

what is lady macbeths role in the murder of king duncan

Answer 6

• concocting the plan and their cover up

- while macbeth kills the king as he is the man

Question 7

what reason does lady macbeth give for not killing king duncan herself and what does this show

Answer 7

• she said “ had he not resembled my father as he slept i had done’t”
• this shows how she believes she has been unsexed and has the ability to do this
• yet the fact that she didnt shows how she remains a woman who cant and still possesses sentimentality
• this carries the notion that women are too nurturing and family-oriented for violence

Question 8

how does lady macbeth manipulate macbeth into killing duncan

Answer 8

• she tells him that he will not be a man unless he kills him
• showing how masculinity and violence and intertwined in the society

Question 9

what does the fact that the murder of duncan , erected from macbeth trying to be a man, leading to their downfall mean

Answer 9

• it criticises that negative way that masculinity has been constructed
• and how one can be manipulated by it as having it made or broke a mans stature