FAMOUS PLAYWRIGHT POET AND OTHERS
MACBETH
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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she was unable to conceive a child
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she wanted to embody the male-oriented tendencies toward cruelty and violence
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traditional women’s roles required her to refrain from ordering her husband around
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she needed to be free from lustful thoughts in order to carry out her plan.
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Detailed explanation-1: -In Act 1 of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, sensing her husband’s shaky resolve in committing murder to secure the crown of Scotland, asks spirits to “unsex” her ‑ to take away the “weaknesses” associated with being female.
Detailed explanation-2: -In the soliloquy, she spurns her feminine characteristics, crying out “unsex me here” and wishing that the milk in her breasts would be exchanged for “gall” so that she could murder Duncan herself. These remarks manifest Lady Macbeth’s belief that manhood is defined by murder.
Detailed explanation-3: -Lady Macbeth muses on ambition and invokes dark spirits to fill her with cruelty in preparation for helping Macbeth take the throne. Duncan and his retinue come to Macbeth’s castle. The Macbeths plot to kill him. Macbeth has second thoughts, but is spurred on by his wife and commits the murder.
Detailed explanation-4: -At one point, she wishes that she were not a woman so that she could do it herself. This theme of the relationship between gender and power is key to Lady Macbeth’s character: her husband implies that she is a masculine soul inhabiting a female body, which seems to link masculinity to ambition and violence.