Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as ambitious, guilt ridden protagonists who illustrate the breakdown of gender roles revealing a modern of concept of how gender roles affect the composition of society.
Throughout the tragedy of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth takes the dominant role in their relationship. Lady Macbeth is concerned with her husbands ability to act maliciously and kill duncan. Lady Macbeth fears her husband's nature is “It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness” (1.5.15). To combat this issue Lady Macbeth says, “Hie thee hither, / That I may pour my spirits in thine ear / and chastise with the valoor of my tongue” (1.5.28-30). Lady Macbeth realizes that Macbeth has an ambitious nature but is to filled with natures kindness to act upon it. Her saying she is going to chastise Macbeth is equivalent to her nagging him until he acts upon her words. She take the pants for their relationship …show more content…
(1.5.47-50) Lady Macbeth is using the power of the supernatural aid to assist here in becoming unwomanly hence “unsex me here.” She is getting rid of her woman like innocence and filling herself with the bruly nature of man. This change has brought upon her a more cruel nature indicating the gender roles of the time.
With her newly acquired manly nature, Lady Macbeth also insults Macbeth when is is being “unmanly”. Macbeth is wimping out and Lady Macbeth says, “Was the hope drunk / Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since? / And wakes it now, to look so green and pale” (1.7.39-41). Lady Macbeth is insulting Macbeth because he is acting like a woman. Lady Macbeth disapproves of Macbeth's doubtfulness explaining the clear gender concepts of the time. The misconceptions of Lady Macbeth's man and Macbeth's man show how when the breakdown of gender rules happen, the collapse of society is imminent. Through all of