The association ones' gender has in society has developed significantly over the centuries, however, despite the extraordinary gains of women, men still stereotypically maintain a more powerful and influential image; for those men that lack the gender power, there is a sense of undesirable inferiority. Shakespeare's dramatic play, Macbeth, contains an interesting and elaborate plot that dives deep into the mysteries of gender, revealing multiple sides of both men and women in various situations. Shakespeare's ideas of specific gender characteristics in the play are shown differently, in that some of his female characters, as well as some of his male characters, have contradicting aspects. His vivid use of gender imagery, showing in detail the sexes' desires, helps to strongly support his ideas on the common associations society gives to the male and female. Lady Macbeth, for instance, wishes in Act Two to have all her "woman qualities" torn from her so as to allow her to act as sadistic as a "man" in her scheme to kill Duncan; with such powerfully driven words, Shakespeare truly allows the reader to get a sense of the intensity of Lady Macbeth's ambition. Relating to the gender image is the issue of power, which arises often throughout the play, erratically applying itself to both men and women. The men especially, in most cases, are self conscious about their manhood for it reflects the power they are able to handle and control. Throughout the play, the foremost reoccurring ideas that correspond with gender-related power and violence are the association of manhood to plain aggression, the defiance of the common belligerent stereotype of a man as shown in Macbeth, as well as the challenge of the innocent stereotype of a woman as shown in Lady Macbeth.
             The idea of the true meaning of manhood is tossed around through the views of different characters repeatedly through the play. In ...