She's the Man

            One of Shakespeare’s most notable female characters is Lady Macbeth, whose first appearance reveals her to be intense, ambitious, and perhaps most importantly, more masculine than her husband!  Throughout the play, Lady Macbeth displays characteristics that are generally associated with masculine characters, namely her unhindered ambition, her ability to think with her head, not with her heart, and the violent acts she commits.   When Macbeth writes to his wife about what the three witches have predicted, sharing with her how part of what they foresaw has already happened, namely the acquiring of the title Thane of Cawdor, Lady Macbeth reveals her lack of faith in her husband.  She does not feel he is capable of doing what is necessary in order for him to eventually become king, thus fulfilling the three witches’ prophecy.  She states that, while Macbeth may have ambition his nature “. . . is too full of o’th’ milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest [most expedient] way” (1.5.15, 16).  She argues that Macbeth’s lack of wickedness will impede his ambition, and reveals her hastiness for his arrival so that she can “take the bull by the horns,” so to speak – help him carry out the necessary means of attaining the crown as quickly as possible.  Her masculinity skyrockets when she makes her famous speech:

                        Come, you spirits

                        That tend on mortal [attend deadly] thoughts, unsex 

                        me here,

                        And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full

                        Of direst cruelty.  Make thick my blood,

                        Stop up th’access and passage to remorse [pity],

                        That no compunctious visitings of nature

                        Shake my fell [cruel] purpose, nor keep 

                        peace [intervene] between

                        Th’effect and it [My purpose and its accomplishment].  

                                                                           (1.5.38, 39-44, 45)

Her ordering of the spirits to “unsex” her, to take away all of the qualities (emotions, namely) that would make her more womanlike is a powerful declaration, and asserts her masculinity absolutely.  She is relinquishing the qualities of her sex, remorse, compassion, gentleness, in exchange for the wickedness necessary to help her husband take the crown. 

            When her husband enters, Lady Macbeth tells him to “look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under’t” (1.5.63, 64) and insists that she will manage the plotting that will be used to ensure him the crown.  This is where it is clear that Macbeth is not “wearing the pants” in their relationship.  His wife is the one planning the conspiracy when he’s the one who will be reaping the benefit of it! 

            Later on, Macbeth tries to convince Lady Macbeth that they should hold off on killing King Duncan, but she becomes angry with him.  She exclaims that his hesitation and refusal to take what is his makes him less of a man and more of a coward.  His lack of intensity and zeal to attain the crown makes him less of a man, and her ambition and passion in obtaining it makes ever the manlier!  Macbeth’s response to her claim that he is a coward who is allowing “I dare not” to wait upon “I would” replies by saying “I dare do all that may become a man; / Who dares do more is none” (1.7.43-44, 46-47).  While Macbeth stews over the idea of murdering King Duncan, Lady Macbeth is mastermind behind the whole scheme.  She has the intelligence and deviousness that the men are generally portrayed possessing, but it is clear that it is not Macbeth who is the brains behind the operation. 

            Once the actual murdering of the king has taken place, Macbeth is traumatized by the acts of violence he has committed.  While he is lamenting over the people’s last words they cried out, Lady Macbeth remains completely composed.  While looking at his bloodstained hands Macbeth comments on them as being a “sorry sight,” to which his wife replies “A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight” (2.2.18-19).  Macbeth is so deeply affected by the atrocity he has committed that he forgets to smear the blood on the servants in Duncan’s room to make it look like they were the ones to have murdered him.  Lady Macbeth tells her husband to wash the blood off his hands as she proceeds to cover the tracks he left unhidden. 

            Lady Macbeth truly demonstrates the more masculine characteristics, while Macbeth seems to portray the more feminine role.  She plans the assassination all by herself, keeps her husband on track and prevents him from abandoning his desire for the crown, and carries out the work he neglects in the end.  She remains composed while Macbeth reveals much internal struggle that makes him come across as being wishy-washy and ineffective.  Her ingeniousness, paired off with her ability to carry out her wills unimpeded and the violent acts she commits to help her husband definitely seems to suggest that she’s the man.