Power and Ambition

William Shakespeares Macbeth, is the story of a usurping General, ecclesiastic Macbeth, and his wife skirt Macbeth who are control to get rid of their king in search of the throne and power. The tragedy has multiple reoccurring themes and motifs, of which Shakespeare uses galore(postnominal) an(prenominal) aesthetic features to in effect develop and enhance. cardinal such(prenominal) theme is masculinity vs. wo domainhood which resounds throughout the entirety of the play and is a central focus point during many events.Shakespeare uses imaginativeness, symbolism and metaphor very effectively during the course of the play to aug workforcet and sail through important develop custodyts and changes to the characters and their states of masculinity and femininity. At the clock that Shakespeare wrote his plays the determine and attitudes were vastly different to those of youthful parlia workforcetary law. Women were considered the fairer trip out while men were considered the possessive depend on.Similar essay If I deform A Collector EssayIn Macbeth, this figure is approached with the thinker that masculinity carried with it the s overcome to kill and come out sin while femininity in its approximationl was softer, gentler and comprised of virtue. Shakespeare demonstrates this sentimentl very wee in the play when, in symbolize 1, Scene 5, chick Macbeth calls out, Come you enliven that tend on human thoughts bushel me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe bloom full of direst cruelness. This happens directly after receiving get a line from her conserve that the witches prophecy had come dependable and that the king was to be joining them in their castle.At this point in the play she is enquire the spirits to take away her femininity, a literal unsexing, and fill her with a direst inhuman treatment that she, as a woman, did not already possess so that she could have the ability to kill her king. This idea of femininity cavic timization an inability to kill, indeed needing to become virile to be able to commit the offensive demonstrates Shakespeares ideal of women organism handsome while men have loathsomeness in their very being. The use of this imagery and figurative language, direst cruelty and unsex me at once, in this outlook underlines this ideal and highlights Shakespeares view on femininity and masculinity.Another chance of Shakespeares portrayal of women as unable(predicate) of sin relates directly to the view of women at the time the play was written. The chivalric view of women, in that they were weaker, less intelligent and meant for unskilled work and child rearing and the sequent opposite view of males, being that they were the money earners, the soldiers, and thus full of courage and prise is very easily seen through Shakespeares language throughout Macbeth. In good turn 4 Scene 3, Macduff says, OI could play the woman with mine eye after being informed that his children and hi s wife had just been murdered in the mob that he had run from. By implying that dolorous is a womanly attri ande and dictum that he as a man should not do it, it again highlights the idea that women were weaker and softer in their femininity consequently men were in their masculinity. This weakness and its symbolized lack of sensual strength, shows again, Shakespeares view of women as the weaker sex and their subsequent inability to commit murder or other atrocious acts.Yet some other instance of Shakespeares obvious interval of femininity from sin is in the scene where Lady Macbeth is convincing sea captain Macbeth to kill King Duncan. Lady Macbeth cows captain Macbeth by asking him With thou think aboutst the ornament of life, and live a coward in thine own self-esteem, letting I refuse not wait upon I would, alike the poor cat I the maxim? This line and its subsequent imagery of a cat wanting the fish but afraid of the water shows that Shakespeare believes that to b e a man is to go after his authentic desires regardless of the consequences.At this point in time, Lady Macbeth has been unsexed and is using her new tack together masculinity to manipulate and force Lord Macbeth into fulfilling her own desires, something that she was not capable of when she was a woman. This is a doubled example of masculinitys ingrained sin Lady Macbeth is manipulating Lord Macbeth by questioning his humanity and as a result to erect his virility and strength he get out commit murder. By proving his masculinity in this way, through murder and evil, it shows that Shakespeare believed men to be the only ones capable of sin.Throughout Macbeth, the theme of Masculinity vs. Femininity is developed and expanded upon using imagery and symbolism. Shakespeare manipulates language conventions to demonstrate the idea of the feminine sex being unable(predicate) of murder and sin while men and their subsequent masculinity is the root of such evil acts. At the time that Sha kespeare wrote his plays the values and attitudes were vastly different to those of modern society and as such his ideals and views reflect these medieval interpretations of women being the weaker sex while men were dominant.From Lady Macbeths plea to be unsexed, to Macduffs implication of crying being a weak response of women and then to Lady Macbeths manipulation of her husband after being filled with the direst cruelty of masculinity, Shakespeares language shows his view on Masculinity vs. Femininity. Through his imagery and symbolism, his perspicacity that women are incapable of evil in their feminine state becomes very illuminate and Macbeth becomes almost a warning to the fairer sex do not lose your femininity and thus your purity.