Masculinity + Femininity

Key Ideas, Scenes, Imagery, Quotes + Context

What are the Three Key Messages?

• Shakespeare explores violence as a part of masculinity.

• Shakespeare explores typical gender stereotypes in Jacobean society.

• Shakespeare explores different masculine and feminine traits.

What are (four) Key Scenes?

• 1.2 – Macbeth praised for his Violence

• 1.5 – Lady Macbeth wishes to become Evil

• 1.7 – Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth

• 2.2 – Macbeth shows much guilt but Lady Macbeth doesn’t

• 5.1 – Lady Macbeth Sleepwalking

• 5.3/7 – Macbeth wants to be violent till the end

What is (two) Imagery used?

• Blood + Water -> Guilt

• Hands -> Guilt + its permanence

“with his brandished steel, which smoked with bloody execution”

• “execution” → CONNOTES NOBLE, DIGNIFIED → Macbeth KILLS with NOBILITY → for a HEROIC + NOBLE CAUSE

“Bellona’s bridegroom”

• “Bellona” → GODDESS of WAR → Macbeth FOUGHT SO WELL

• “bridegroom” → Macbeth is ONLY the HUSBAND of Goddess of War → LADY MACBETH is MORE POWERFUL

“Come you spirits… unsex me her and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty”

• “Come” → IMPERATIVE

• “unsex” → Lady Macbeth wishes to become EVIL → Lose her FEMININE QUALITIES

• “top-full” → Emphaises how EVIL Lady Macbeth wishes to be

“Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it”

• METAPHOR for being DECEIVING

• “serpent” → CONNOTES SLY, CUNNING → Lady Macbeth wishes Macbeth to be like this

“When you durst do it, then you were a man.”

• “man” → Lady Macbeth is MANIPULATING Macbeth by QUESTIONING his MANHOOD

“plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out”

• HYPERBOLE → Emphaises how EVIL Lady Macbeth is + extent she would go to become QUEEN

“Will all great Neptune’s oceans wash this blood clean from my hand?”

• “Neptune” → ROMAN GOD NOT CHRISTIAN → Macbeth not close to GOD anymore due to his SINS so has to call to a ROMAN GOD

• “oceans” → METAPHOR for CLEANSING GUILT away→ Emphaises how GUILTY Macbeth is

“My hands are of your colour; but I shame to wear a heart so white.”

• METAPHOR for doing the SAME SIN

• “shame” → CONNOTES DONE WRONG, GUILTY → Lady Macbeth doesn’t think she has

• “white” → CONNOTES WEAK, INNOCENT → Macbeth is being like this but Lady Macbeth REFUSES to

“A little water clears us of this deed.”

• “little” CONTRASTS to Macbeth needing “oceans” → Lady Macbeth doesn’t feel GUILTY

“Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck”

• “Be” → IMPERATIVE → Macbeth has GAINED POWER + is taking LEAD

• “chuck” → TERM OF ENDEARMENT → Macbeth regards Lady Macbeth as less than him

“all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”

• “all the perfumes of Arabia” → METAPHOR for IMMENSE GUILT

• “all perfumes of Arabia” CONTRASTS to “little”

• ECHOES Macbeth’s “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hands?” → Lady Macbeth has INEVITABLY become GUILTY

“I’ll fight, till from my bones my flesh be hacked.”

• HYPERBOLE → Extent to which Macbeth will CONTINUE to be VIOLENT

• “hacked” → STRONG VERB → CONNOTES FULLY BROKEN → Extent to which Macbeth will CONTINUE to be VIOLENT

“They have tied me to a stake… But bear-like I must fight the course.”

• “tied me to a stake” → METAPHOR for TRAPPED → Macbeth KNOWS he will lose, but will continue to be VIOLENT

• “bear-like” → CONNOTES RUTHLESS → Macbeth will continue to be VIOLENT like this

What are (two) Pieces of Context?

• Patriarchal Society -> Lady Macbeth becomes weak at end

• -> Shakespeare explores men as violent