“Macbeth” is a tragedy by William Shakespeare; it is thought to have been first performed in 1606. Macbeth dramatizes the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. Gender roles of the play “Macbeth,” have caught my interest the most than the other topics that could have been chosen. When it comes to the gender roles my focus was more on Lady Macbeth and Macbeth.
For this play, Lady Macbeth seems to take on the lead role to be more masculine than her own husband. According to the play in costume, men were the ones who wore dresses and the women wore pants following a gender theme. For Lady Macbeth to taking charge can represent other women that take charge of their marriage or can inspire others as an example. Lady Macbeth gives orders instead of taking them, showing that she is in control and the others around her can think of her actions. Although she takes charge, she does feel guilty near the end than before as to planning and convincing the murder for greed and soon takes her life. Lady Macbeth can be a symbol of guilt by not thinking more clearly of what happens after taking action.
Macbeth the main character of the play, chooses how he will act and what he will do, and that is what leads him to the end. In my opinion what it takes to be a good man, is a person that is firm and confident with their decisions so that they’re able to handle the upcoming, or is responsible and can manage things well-treating others with respect. In the start, Macbeth can be seen as a good man for being loyal to his friends and ruler but scenes go on the witches tell him his fate to question himself for the future and as a loyal soldier to his ruler. When it comes to manhood the difference between then in the play and modern time is that men now would want more power in their relationships but for Macbeth, he desired power only to be crowned king. The weird sisters also put me into more thought as from the quote by Banquo stating, “You should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret so.” Based on this statement I would think why wouldn’t women want to have a more feminine image but maybe they didn’t want that either. From my point of view, I would agree most with modern times than in this play, although with Lady Macbeth I would like to take charge, but as for the men I would want to work with each other than one carrying another.
In general, the gender roles a character plays can make the audience question and make them more engaged for why they act as they did in “Macbeth”. Lady Macbeth represents others and goes through her own stages of harshness by society, Macbeth gives a lesson from being convinced into something that could’ve been changed, and the weird sisters prefer to be left ambiguous. Overall, the play leaves us with an open-mind of how things are.
