Masculinity
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The main theme of Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy in Scene 5, and her speech with her husband, is masculinity. She believe that if she is to commit a successful murder, she must repress her natural feminine tendencies to not do evil and be more manly to block herself from feeling guilty. She explicitly asks to become a man when she says “unsex me here”. The language suggests that her womanhood, represented by breasts and milk, prevents her from being violent or cruel. She associates “compunctious visitings of nature” with the feminine while violence and cruelty as naturally manly. This false belief is contradicted throughout the play by Banquo and Macduff. It is linked to her equally faulty idea that ‘unsexing’ herself is an easy thing to do without any consequences.
Lady Macbeth tries to convince her husband to kill Duncan by saying if he does not do it he is not a real man. This is very important because it touches on Macbeth’s desire to please his wife and be as much of a man as he can be. Lady Macbeth says Macbeth must make a decision and stick to it.
Lady Macbeth tries to convince her husband to kill Duncan by saying if he does not do it he is not a real man. This is very important because it touches on Macbeth’s desire to please his wife and be as much of a man as he can be. Lady Macbeth says Macbeth must make a decision and stick to it.