Essay: Exploring Shakespeare’s Revolutionary Gender Reversal in Macbeth

The way in which Shakespeare reverses traditional gender roles in Macbeth is revolutionary. Through the conflicting character of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare subverts and questions many gender assumptions. Lady Macbeth’s persuasion of Macbeth’s regicide can be seen as Shakespeare’s parodic depiction of wifely duty. Shakespeare’s incorporation of Lady Macbeth’s gender reversal and relinquishment of femininity make Macbeth the fascinating play it is today.
After receiving the letter about the witches’ prophecies, Lady Macbeth attempts to be like a man to have the strength needed to gain the social status as royalty. The desire for her to become queen and her husband to be king motivates her to convince Macbeth to perform drastic and evil actions. Lady Macbeth plans to “pour my spirits in thine ear, And chastise with the valour of my tongue, All that impedes thee from the golden round.” (Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 26-28) This encouragement of violence can be seen as Shakespeare’s reversal satirical portrayal of wifely duty. (Alfar 179–207) “Her boastful intention signifies her rebellion against the submissive role to which her culture has assigned her.” (Gilbert) Lady Macbeth attempts to take on masculine characteristics in an effort to make herself stronger. She often tells Macbeth to act like a man and belittles him by attacking his masculinity. She tells Macbeth he is “too full o’th’ milk of human kindness” because he is hesitant to murder Duncan. (Act 1, Scene 5, Line 17) Lady Macbeth emasculates her husband by stating that he is not acting as a man should. She does this because her role is to remind Macbeth of his culture’s expectations for masculinity. (Alfar 179–207) This perpetuates a commonly held belief that a man lacking physical power and strength is a coward and doesn’t deserve respect. Lady Macbeth desires to be a man as women are too soft to commit murders. Lady Macbeth’s belief that only men can be strong or cruel enough to commit murder perpetuates gender stereotypes of women not being as ruthless as men and their requirement to be submissive.
Lady Macbeth’s desire and passion to eliminate her role as a woman is revealed when she calls to the diabolical spirits. She says, “Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here; and fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood, stop up the access and passage to remorse, that no compunctious visiting of nature shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between the effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts, and take my milk for gall…” (Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 30-38) This speech reveals Lady Macbeth’s consciousness of her gender and Shakespeare’s surmise of what the female body might feel like to a person possessed by a male mind. (Smith 25-48) She is asking for the masculine brutality necessary to encourage violence. (Alfar 179–207) She calls upon the spirits to unsex her, to fill her breasts with gall, and to stop her menstrual flow. Lady Macbeth believes her unsexing as an act of ‘mind over matter’ because it is the ‘spirits’ that will enact her commands. (Smith 25-48) In her speech, she describes “not gender but what it feels like to possess gender,” in terms specific to early modern culture. (Smith 25-48) Lady Macbeth is an independent woman and desires to remove all aspects of her femininity as she believes they hold her back.
Lady Macbeth’s summoning of the spirits to “Make thick my blood, stop up the access and passage to remorse, that no compunctious visiting of nature shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between the effect and it!” is her wanting of power so she has the ability to persuade Macbeth into murdering Duncan. This speech is not motivated by an “individualized agency” because it is to support the desire of her husband. (Alfar 179–207) In this speech, she is more preparing for a performance rather than transgressing her gender. Because the power Macbeth desires lacks mercy and sympathy, she asks the spirits to masculinize her to mime Macbeth’s ruthless and masculine ambitions. (Alfar 179–207) Lady Macbeth’s success is derived from her grasp of both male and female roles.
Lady Macbeth goes beyond gender roles in her murderous ambitions, however, this monsters herself and makes her a mockery of womanhood. (Gilbert) At the end of the play, Lady Macbeth is full of guilt and remorse because of her ability to destroy her maternal ways. (Callaghan 355-369) When Macbeth is wavering about the decision to murder he describes his feelings of ‘pity, like a naked new-born babe’ (Act 1, Scene 7, Line 21). Lady Macbeth responds with a savage description of a mother’s most unnatural fantasy, infanticide: “I have given suck, and know / How tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me: / I would, while it was smiling in my face, / Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums, / And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you / Have done to this.” (Act 1, Scene 7, Lines 54–59) A child does not appear in any scenes of the play, however, her statement that she “knows how tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me” and an earlier mention of breast milk indicate that she does have a child. Lady Macbeth rejects her maternal role by threatening to murder and “dash the brains out” of her breastfeeding child to realize her goal for her husband and herself. This is another attempt for Lady Macbeth to seize a masculine power to further her Macbeth’s political goals. (Chamberlain 72-91) The power she seeks is an often conflicted status in early modern England and enables her to slip the gendered prescriptions that bind her. (Chamberlain 72-91) This rejection of her maternal roots leads to her eventual guilt and restless life.
Lady Macbeth is first shown as an “iron-willed character” willing to kill her baby to being shown as possessed by nightmares of guilt. (Davis 1) According to materialist feminism theory, her eventual weakness is a result of a patriarchal portrayal of her gender. (Davis 1) Patriarchal society encourages her to be true to her role of a mother. However, she is seen as selfish when she confesses she would kill her child. This is unnatural because women’s desire to have and protect their children is part of their biological makeup. By the end of the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have been restored to their ‘proper’ gender roles. Macbeth gains in murderous masculinity, ordering numerous murders, including the deaths of Lady Macduff and her children, while Lady Macbeth falls back into the feminine helplessness she had rejected. (Gilbert) Lady Macbeth ends her life in despair of her powerlessness and regret. She dies searching for the ruthless power in herself valued by her culture. (Alfar 179–207)
Lady Macbeth is the driving force of the murders in Macbeth. Macbeth’s desire to be king was not enough to commit murder. However, Lady Macbeth’s ambition convinces Macbeth to murder Duncan. This first murder, driven by Lady Macbeth, develops the plot as Macbeth becomes thirsty for blood and wants to remove the threats of those who are suspicious. Lady Macbeth as the perpetrator of the events in the plot is an important aspect of Macbeth. Therefore, Macbeth would not be the play it is today without her. Lady Macbeth is at the center of Shakespeare’s tragedy. She is seen as a product of a dictatorial structure of power so that she performs her gender according to the structure’s violent instructions. (Alfar 179-207)
Gender performance in Macbeth is enabled by the established culture of violence during the time. Lady Macbeth’s evil is revealed as the product of a system of power relations. For the possible future of Macbeth’s throne, she plans and persuades Macbeth to murder Duncan. In order to do this, she rejects her femininity and maternal roots. She calls on the spirits to masculinize her and unsex her. She goes as far as to tell Macbeth she would kill her infant in order to achieve the goal. Lady Macbeth is an important and unique character as she is the ruthless motivator of the plot and causes many tragedies. Shakespeare’s characterization of Lady Macbeth interrogates femininity as good or evil depending on women’s support of or threat to masculinity.