"Your royal father's murdered," (II.i.101). "Macbeth" is one of William Shakespeare's
most violent plays. There are so many murders in the play that they are hard to keep track
of. Every murder that occurs happens offstage, so the audience never sees any of them,
but they do know when a murder is about to happen. There is a trend throughout the
entire play, one that is not very obvious to the naked eye. Shakespeare brings up the
question of manliness throughout the play, and shortly after the subject is brought up, a
murder will occur. Manliness has a different definition between the characters though, and
Macbeth gives other characters, like Macduff, a bad name.
Issues of gender and manliness are frequent problems that dwell in the characters
of "Macbeth". Lady Macbeth is a very strong, free-willed women, and uses these
characteristics to manipulate her husband when questioning his manhood. "When you
durst do it, then you were a man; and to be more than what you were, you would be so
much more the man,"(I.vii.49-51). Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband, saying that he
wouldn't be a man if he didn't kill Duncan. She also tells him that if she were a man that
she would kill Duncan herself, but she can't.
Macbeth responds to his wife's manipulation by taking things into his own hands.
Lady Macbeth's manipulations cause Macbeth to rethink his ideas and also gives him the
little boost of encouragement that he needs to go ahead with the murder. Macbeth
doesn't think twice about his manliness, and he believes that he, being a man, should
definitely commit the murder to better himself and his wife. Macbeth, once a common,
simple man, falls into the never-ending pressure of proving to others that he is a man.
Macbeth uses manipulation himself when he questions the manhood of the murders
of Banquo, "...