Blood, Tears, and Toxic Masculinity - Gender and Masculinity

The raven himself is hoarse / That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan / Under my battlements. Act 1, Scene 5. Lady Macbeth has just read her husband's letter. She knows the witches have prophesied he will be king. And she knows, instantly, that they are going to have to murder King Duncan to make it happen. But she has a problem. She doesn't think her husband has the stomach for it. She says he is "too full o' the milk of human kindness". Notice that metaphor. Milk. It's maternal. It's nourishing. It's distinctly feminine. In the Jacobean era, women were expected to be passive, gentle, and life-giving. But Lady Macbeth looks at those traits and sees only weakness. If she is going to help her husband commit treason, she needs to purge herself of every feminine instinct she possesses. Listen to how she prepares herself. Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood; Stop up the access and passage to remorse... "Unsex me here." It's one of the most famous, chilling lines in all of English literature. She isn't just asking for courage. She is begging the spirits to strip away her biological sex. It's a terrifying physical transformation she's asking for. She asks them to "make thick her blood" so that pity can't flow through her veins. And then she goes even further. She asks the spirits to come to her "woman's breasts" and take her milk for gall. Gall being a bitter, acidic poison. She wants to literally replace her maternal, life-giving milk with death. What's fascinating here is that Shakespeare is showing us that cruelty isn't a natural state for a woman - or a man, for that matter. Lady Macbeth has to summon dark, supernatural forces to artificially make herself cruel. She has to actively end her own humanity. And why? Because she equates masculinity with action, and femininity with hesitation. To commit murder, she believes she must become entirely masculine. She has to become a machine of pure, unfeeling ambition. And once she has hardened herself, she turns her sights on her husband.

Act 1, Scene 7. Macbeth has stepped out of the banquet. King Duncan is eating dinner in the next room. Macbeth has been thinking about the murder, and he's changed his mind. He tells his wife, "We will proceed no further in this business." He has all these very rational, moral reasons. Duncan is his guest. Duncan is his king. Duncan is actually a really good bloke. So, how does Lady Macbeth get him to change his mind back? She doesn't argue the politics. She doesn't talk about the tactical advantage. She hits him right where he is most vulnerable. She attacks his masculinity. Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valour As thou art in desire? She calls him a coward. To a hardened, eleventh-century warrior who just spent the afternoon slicing people open for a living, being called a coward by his wife is completely intolerable. Prithee, peace: / I dare do all that may become a man; / Who dares do more is none. Right there. Hold on that line. "I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none." Macbeth is actually defending a very noble, balanced version of masculinity here. He's saying, "I am a man. But a true man has limits. If I murder an innocent guest in his sleep, I cross the line into becoming a monster. I cease to be a man." It's a brilliant defence. But Lady Macbeth completely bulldozes it. She twists his definition of manhood. What beast was't, then, That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; And, to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more the man.

"When you durst do it, then you were a man." It is pure, psychological manipulation. She is essentially saying: If you back out now, you're not a real man. But if you commit the murder? Oh, if you commit the murder, you'll be the ultimate man. She weaponises his gender identity against him. And to prove how committed she is, she uses the most violent, anti-maternal image in the play. She tells him that if she had sworn to do it, she would take her own baby while it was smiling in her face, pluck her nipple from its boneless gums, and dash the brains out. It's horrific. It completely overwhelms him. Macbeth is so awed by her terrifying, masculine cruelty that he actually says, "Bring forth men-children only! For thy undaunted mettle should compose nothing but males." He yields. He agrees to murder the king. He trades his morality for a toxic, bloodthirsty version of masculinity. And from that moment on, Macbeth is trapped in a cycle where every problem can only be solved by violence. He murders Duncan. Then he murders Banquo. Then he slaughters Macduff's entirely innocent family. He becomes completely numb. He stops feeling fear, he stops feeling love, he stops feeling grief. By stripping away the "feminine" traits of compassion, Macbeth thinks he has become invincible. But really, he's just hollowed himself out.

Which brings us to the antidote. If Macbeth represents masculinity gone wrong, Shakespeare gives us another character to show us what true manhood looks like. Act 4, Scene 3. We are in England. Macduff, a noble Scottish lord, has fled Macbeth's tyranny to find the rightful heir, Malcolm. But while Macduff is away, Macbeth sends assassins to Macduff's castle. They murder his wife. They murder his children. They murder his servants. Everyone. A messenger named Ross arrives in England and has to break the news to Macduff. It is one of the most heart-wrenching scenes Shakespeare ever wrote. When Macduff hears the news, he is completely paralysed. He pulls his hat down over his eyes to hide his tears. Malcolm, the young prince, tries to comfort him. But Malcolm is young, and he buys into that same old-school, aggressive warrior mentality. He tells Macduff: "Dispute it like a man." Meaning: Don't cry. Get angry. Turn your grief into revenge. Act like a soldier. But Macduff's response is revolutionary. I shall do so; But I must also feel it as a man. I cannot but remember such things were, That were most precious to me.

"I must also feel it as a man." It gives me goosebumps every time. It's incredible, isn't it? Macduff completely redefines what it means to be a man. He doesn't deny his need to fight - "I shall do so," he says. He will get his revenge. But he absolutely refuses to suppress his grief. He is telling Malcolm, and the Jacobean audience, that experiencing deep, overwhelming emotional pain doesn't make you less of a man. It is the very thing that proves your humanity. He says, "I cannot but remember such things were, that were most precious to me." He loves his family. His heart is broken. And he is going to let it break. Compare that to Macbeth. Later in the play, when Macbeth hears that his own wife has died, his response is cold. Numb. "She should have died hereafter," he says. There would have been a time for such a word. Macbeth has successfully "unsexed" himself of all human feeling, just as his wife wanted. He is a shell. But Macduff? Macduff's ability to weep, to love, to feel crushing sorrow - that is what makes him whole. And crucially, it is Macduff, the man who weeps, who is ultimately the one capable of defeating Macbeth.

Shakespeare's Macbeth is famous for its witches, its ghosts, and its murders. But at its core, it is a profound psychological study of gender. Lady Macbeth believes that to be powerful, she must destroy her femininity. She calls on darkness to strip away her compassion, only to find that without it, her mind shatters. She ends the play sleepwalking, desperately trying to wash imaginary blood from her hands, destroyed by the guilt she thought she could suppress. And Macbeth allows himself to be convinced that cruelty is the highest form of masculinity. He murders his way to the throne, but in doing so, he loses everything that makes life worth living - friendship, love, honour, and peace. It is only Macduff who shows us the way forward. An integrated masculinity. A man who can hold a sword in one hand, but who is brave enough to shed tears for the people he loves. "I must also feel it as a man." It is a lesson that is just as relevant today as it was in 1606. That brings us to the end of our deep dive into gender and masculinity in Macbeth. When you're writing your essays, remember not just to talk about what Macbeth does, but why he does it - and how characters like Lady Macbeth and Macduff challenge those brutal expectations. For more close readings of key scenes, check out the rest of the series. Keep your quotes sharp, and your analysis sharper. I've been Eleanor, your Director of Studies. Until next time, don't let the witches get in your head.