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Gender and manhood in Macbeth — theme analysis

Macbeth · William Shakespeare · Set text on Pearson Edexcel International GCSE English Literature (4ET1) · Grade 9 Notes

In one sentence. 'What is a man?' is asked, answered wrongly, and finally answered rightly: the play stages competing definitions of masculinity and prices each one.

This study ends with William Shakespeare. Build your reading of Gender and manhood in Macbeth, teach it, then defend it against William Shakespeare.

How Gender and manhood works in Macbeth

The wrong equation — manhood as daring ('When you durst do it, then you were a man') — is Lady Macbeth's weapon, Macbeth's goad to the murderers ('Now, if you have a station in the file, / Not i' th' worst rank of manhood, say't'), and the play's target. Against it: Macduff's 'I must also feel it as a man', and Malcolm's 'Dispute it like a man' corrected in real time. Femininity is likewise interrogated: Lady Macbeth must be 'unsexed' to act, the witches are bearded women, Lady Macduff is femininity destroyed by male politics. The play's answer, delivered by its ending: the complete human being feels AND acts — the divorce of the two is where the tragedy lived.

The characters who carry Gender and manhood

An essay on Gender and manhood is built from the characters. Each line below is from that character's own study — follow it for the full analysis.

  • Lady Macbeth — 'unsex me' and 'when you durst do it' make her the theme's centre; Macduff's grief is the counter-case.
  • Macduff — the keystone — see above.

Quotations on Gender and manhood, analysed

Each of these is analysed in full in the character's own study, where it belongs.

Macduff

“I shall do so; / But I must also feel it as a man.” — Macduff, Act 4 Scene 3

The play's ethical fulcrum in thirteen words: action and feeling reunited after four acts of their divorce. Use it as the closing paragraph of any gender or masculinity essay — it is the standard by which every other definition of 'man' in the play is marked.

Methods: antithesis resolved · thematic keystone

More Gender and manhood quotations, from the Macbeth quote bank

Each is analysed in full — speaker, scene, techniques, structure, context and essay use — on the Macbeth key quotes page; the line here is what the words are doing.

“yet do I fear thy nature; / It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness”

Lady Macbeth · Act 1 Scene 5

Her reading of her husband: kindness diagnosed as obstacle, milk as weakness. Full analysis →

“unsex me here, / And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full / Of direst cruelty”

Lady Macbeth · Act 1 Scene 5

The petition: womanhood surrendered for cruelty's capacity. Full analysis →

“take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers”

Lady Macbeth · Act 1 Scene 5

Nurture exchanged for poison at the body's own fountain. Full analysis →

“I have given suck … I would, while it was smiling in my face, / Have … dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you / Have done to this”

Lady Macbeth · Act 1 Scene 7

The oath-keeping standard set at infanticide — commitment priced above nature itself. Full analysis →

“My hands are of your colour, but I shame / To wear a heart so white.”

Lady Macbeth · Act 2 Scene 2

Shared blood, unshared fear: his pallor scorned as cowardice she'd blush to own. Full analysis →

Essays on Gender and manhood in Macbeth

Thesis statements that argue it

  • Macbeth interrogates its era's equation of manhood with daring, and corrects it through Macduff: the play's duels are between definitions of a man before they are between men.

Think you understand it?

Reading is the start. On Incandio a topic counts as mastered only once you have taught it and defended it — the two things a revision guide cannot ask of you.

Incandio this topic → Prove it. Teach it. Defend it. What does “Incandio it” mean?

  1. Teach it — Explain your reading of Gender and manhood in Macbeth to Ember, an AI pupil who has not made one, and answer the awkward question. Understanding is credited; wording is not required.
  2. Defend it — Hold your reading of Gender and manhood in Macbeth against William Shakespeare in a short, structured debate marked against descriptors you can read first.
  3. Then the exam — 4 authored exam-style questions on Gender and manhood in Macbeth, marked on Incandio with the mistake you actually made named.

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Carry on through Macbeth

Every study of Macbeth