Macbeth tells of the tragedy of the former Thane of Cawdor and his wife, and how their deadly desires led to both of their demises. Carolyn Asp wrote a piece in 1981 on the role of stereotypes in the play and of how taking those supposed ideals to extremes leads to destruction. She also wrote of how success in changing one’s nature is but an illusion because it isn’t possible to be fully rid of that which makes you human. The downfall of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is incited by Lady Macbeth’s desire to rid herself and her husband of all things that she views as feminine, all things that she equates with weakness: sensitivity, emotion, empathy. Lady Macbeth wants, from the beginning of Act I as shown in when she asked the gods to “unsex [her]” (v, 48), to become more masculine and shed her femininity. She psychologically forces the ideals of a man onto herself and onto her husband. In their partnership, she had often taken on the more commanding and authoritative role, one usually assumed by the man, and so this fed her delusion that femininity was weakness.
In her soliloquy at the beginning of Act I, scene v after she had read Macbeth’s letter about his encounter with the witches, she notes how she sees that he isn’t a man according to her definition. She says “[he] is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness” (17) and then goes on to say that he “art not without ambition, but without I the illness should attend it” (19-20). This first quote shows compassion, something generally viewed as a feminine quality, and one that Lady Macbeth clearly thinks is equivalent to weakness. The second quote is where Lady Macbeth acknowledges that her husband does have the ambition to succeed and raise himself up the social ladder, but then she also notes that he lacks the poison or the ability to act on his desires; he isn’t cold- blooded and he’s too loyal to the king to go against him. However, once she had stated these facts about her husband-things that she sees as weak but society sees as moral and admirable-she then schemes “| may pour my spirits in thine ear / and chastise with the valor of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round” (29-31).
The first two lines tells of her intent to manipulate her husband by whispering in his ear and controlling him from the shadows as a way to make him act on his ambitions and desires. The third and last line is a mention of “all that impedes [him]” (31), and is a reference to his feminine qualities. She then acts on these plans that she has made while Macbeth was away, and inadvertently set in motion the gears of their demise. Macbeth was portrayed as an honorable man, one who was fiercely loyal to his king and fearless on the battlefield. This is the image the readers are given of the main character from the eyes of Ross, Angus, and Banquo in Act I, scene ii. Some things said to describe him are “nothing afeard of what thyself didst make” (100), “worthy Macbeth” (165) in reference to his imminent appointment as Thane of Cawdor, and “every on did bear [Macbeth’s] praises in his kingdom’s great defense, / and poured them down before [Macbethl” (102-104).
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In response to this praise, Macbeth is humble, refusing to take the title of Thane before the previous one has died, saying “why do you dress me in borrowed robes?” (114-115). After he kills Duncan in Act II, Macbeth shows a remorse that the rest of the play lacks. He laments his inability to say Amen-“I had most need of blessing, and ‘Amen’ / stuck in my throat. ” (ii, 43-44)-when he is going to kill his king, and then after the deed is done, he again expresses his deep guilt- “will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather / the multitudinous seas incanadine / making the green one red.” (78-81). This shows the depth of his guilt over his actions because he is saying that the amount of blood on his hands, which is a commonly used metaphor for guilt, is s0 great that, rather than the oceans cleansing him of sin, instead the blood on his hands would forever change the waters red. This is quite in contrast to later in the play when he expresses a ruthlessness and a lack of remorse when he orders kilings or when he kills himself.
The only time we see any inkling of guilt is in Act V, in Macbeth’s final scene before Macduff kills him. Macbeth says to his former friend, “of all men I have avoided thee. / but get thee back. My soul is too much charged/ with blood of thine already” (vii, 5-8). This shows a slight regression from the monster he had become after rejecting all things feminine such as compassion, empathy, and sensitivity. The way that society reacts to this change in Macbeth is to push him and his wife away. The stereotype of masculinity certainly exists-strong, brave, loyal, ambitious-as does the stereotype for femininity-kind, humble, quiet, gentle. However, in excising all parts of himself that go along with feminine attributes, Macbeth caused his own eventual death. It was, however, Lady Macbeth who set this path in motion with her dangerous desire to be no longer a woman and to possess only the attributes associated with men. It is shown many a time how she is unable to be fully rid of her femininity, for it is within her by birth. One such example of what she would have viewed as her failure is in Act II when she tells her husband “had he not resembled/ my father as he slept, I had done t” (ii, 16-17). This shows that she still retains the sentimentality that she resents as a quality possessed by women which men, in their ruthlessness, should be free of.
To conclude, Lady Macbeth’s desire to rid herself and her husband of all things feminine-compassion, love, sympathy, mercy-and become truly men as she defined them led them both to early graves. She ripped the humanity from Macbeth and made him a perfect killing machine, though he regained some sense of self in the end just before he dies. Lady Macbeth as well suffers a terrible fate because her natural humanity and femininity lead her to kill herself because of the crushing guilt she feels over setting her husband on a path of blood. Society also ostracized them because they took the stereotypes too far, took them past the extreme to someplace that no one else dared travel. Stereotypes are expected, they are the norm; when somebody upsets that by going past the limits of the acceptable, then sOciety pushes them away for its own protection.
