Marni Brewster

ENGL 339

Paper #4

Gender and Violence

In William Shakespeare’s tragedy, “Macbeth,” both female and male characters explore violence as it relates to masculinity. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth equate masculinity with aggression and violence as they define manhood by power, physical strength, and force of will. Although physical violence is compared to masculinity, women are also portrayed as sources of violence and evil. Through emasculation and manipulation, Shakespeare explores how masculinity is portrayed by different genders.

The women of “Macbeth” provide the push that sets the bloody action of the play in motion. Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband by questioning his manhood when he is afraid to follow through with the murder of the King. “When you durst do it, then you were a man; and to be more than what you were you would be so much more the man.” (Simply Shakespeare [SM1] , pg. 64, ln. 55) Lady Macbeth makes jabs at her husband repeatedly, knowing that in his desperation to prove his manhood he will perform the murders she wishes him to carry out. She also questions his manhood when Macbeth is hallucinating Banquo’s ghost. She snarls at him, “Are you a man?” (pg. 136, ln. 68) Macbeth’s weakness when he sees the ghost reduces him to a woman-like state[SM2] as he cowers in fear. Macbeth himself uses this manipulation technique on the First Murderer to provoke him to kill Banquo. “…and so of men…if you have a station in the file…” (pg.118, ln. 108) The questioning of manhood provides a tool to get others to do as you would like them to do[SM3] .

Not only do Shakespeare’s characters try to manipulate each other, but they try to manipulate themselves through the conviction that masculinity leads to cruelty. Once Lady Macbeth realizes what she must do for her husband to become king, she cries, “Come, you spirits…unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty.” (pg. 52, ln. 42) Lady Macbeth feels the need to lose her femininity in order to become cruel. She does not use force or violence to get what she wants, rather she employs her skills of language use and manipulation to drive the play and its tragic story.

Many of Shakespeare’s plays use the role of gender to create a theme within a story. In “Macbeth” he shows how much of the evil in the world derives from what is perceived as masculine. This is not to say all evil and violence comes from the male species, but rather it comes from what is known to be masculine attributes. The three witches are a great example of those who are evil and female, yet attain masculine qualities. “And yet your beards forbid me to interpret…” (pg. 34, ln. 47[SM4] ) Those qualities of power, physical strength, and force of will have traditionally been connected to males. Yet Shakespeare takes this notion a step further to explore women and their connections to cruelty, men, and tragedy.