The Gender Role in Macbeth

In the text, the female character of Lady Macbeth is often shadowed by her partner Macbeth. When in public, the female characters are simply just there for the men, but in private, such as with Lady Macbeth, they can do much more and have more of an influence over the men. In this time, the only way for a female to gain power would be through her partner and the other men around them, never by themselves. In public, the female characters are forced to be happy and cheerful for their male counterparts, however when in private they express their feelings much more to their partner. Whilst the female characters can try to convince or persuade their partners, it’s the males that have the final say and make the decisions for themselves. In the text, the male characters are expected to uniform to traditional gender expectations immensely. An example of this is when King Duncan is killed. Lady Macbeth states how the murdering and the killing of another person is a man’s job to do, not a females and beckons for God to “Unsex me now” Act 1 scene 5. For male readers, the reading experience would be different as the only people with power and the more prominent characters are the males, however for the females, different to see that the females have barely any power compared to the current world, where the power divide is becoming more equal. The gender of the author could have influenced the perspective of the text on both males and females. As the author is male, there may have been more emphasis on the male characters, where as if the author was female, the female characters may have had more of a voice in the text and been more prominent. This can also be seen as the characters of Macbeth and Macduff are both males, showing male hero and villain. Overall, the text can be seen through a different light when looked at through a feminine lens.

Macbeth is primarily based on power and the need to receive and retain it. The power that each individual character has directly results in their hierarchical position as those who are deemed the richest have the most power, and the poorest have the least. The kings and royalty are above the commoners as they have the most wealth, therefore making them more powerful. Power is gained throughout the play as Macbeth makes his way up the Monarchical order. As he begins being a leader of Duncan’s army, he has more power than those of the lower class, but much less power compared to the monarchy. As he climbs higher and higher through the ranks, he gains escalating power until he eventually becomes the king. In the end, this doesn’t finish well with Macbeth being beheaded by Macduff. The ideology that power is everything can be seen in the text with every character’s actions mainly being about retaining or gaining power. It can be seen in act 1 scene 3 when the witches claim “All hail Macbeth, Thane of Glamis. All hail Macbeth, Thane of Cawdor, all hair Macbeth that shalt be king hereafter.” This shows the three witches using their supernatural powers to predict the future. This interferes with what Macbeth believes is right, but due to wanting power he seeks the truth. Lady Macbeth seeks power immensely, but due to her gender and social status she cannot receive it by herself, therefore she uses Macbeth to help her in her rise to power. Once Lady Macbeth gains the power, it upsets the balance of power and leads to further complications. 

The society in Macbeth is structured with the king being the most powerful followed by his sons, and then his relatives. After this, those who work for the king such as the commanders of the army are next. It is then followed by the sons and kings of those commanders, and lastly the commoners are working class are last. Throughout the text the character I identified with the most would be Macduff. Sticking up for what is right and fixing the unjustness in society is something that should be applauded. It is often hard to speak out and stand up for what you believe to be right and Macduff was the character that did that. The lives of characters from both the lower and upper classes are equally as important as one another. This is because although those in the upper classes have more wealth and power, those from the lower classes hold more life experience which equates to knowledge. Altogether, when looking at the text through a Marxist lens, it reveals the true ambitions of some of the major characters, and how the story of Macbeth is all centred around power.

In the text of Macbeth, psychoanalytical motivations are a dominant reason behind the choices and decisions various characters make, leading to different outcomes and events. In the character of Lady Macbeth, her decisions are influenced by her want and need for power. As she rises to power, and commits horrific crimes and murders, she begins to become haunted and discontent with her actions. This can be seen early on in Macbeth when King Duncan is murdered and Lady Macbeth comes home to her husband. Whilst she doesn’t, she claims to have blood on her hands and rushes to the bathroom, constantly washing and washing off the imaginary blood. This hallucination is a sign of her superego coming through over her ego and id. This shows that the superego is taking control by making her second guess the morality of her actions through hallucinations and sleepwalking. Majority of Lady Macbeth’s actions are done consciously although sometimes her superego takes over whilst she is asleep and unconscious which can seep into her consciousness and cause her to question her decisions. Her superego is combatted by her id, which instinctively tells her to do what is best and what will gain her the most power. In the society Macbeth is set in, if a woman had an opportunity to become the most powerful women in Scotland they would most definitely take it. Although it may be wrong or unjust, seeking power is what seemingly everyone wants. Conflict is something that comes up between Macbeth and his Lady and is driven by Lady Macbeth. She has a plan of how Macbeth and herself can become King and Queen based off of what was said by the witches, and when Macbeth is filled doubt Lady Macbeth is there to reassure him.