Macbeth+Project+-+Nyal+P+-+Analysis

Throughout the story, the acts of cruelty, and criminality stemmed from the threat of masculinity. A number of characters often twist the usage of gender by exploiting the gender "roles". Lady Macbeth manipulates and influences Macbeth by putting his manliness in question and wishing that she herself could be “unsexed". Coincidentally, Lady Macbeth does not contradict Macbeth when he says that a woman like her should give birth only to boys. In the same manner that Lady Macbeth goads her husband on to murder, Macbeth provokes the murderers he hires to kill Banquo by questioning their manhood: "Not I' th' worst rank of manhood, say't" (3.1.101). Such acts show that both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth equate masculinity with naked aggression, and whenever they converse about manhood, violence seems imminent. Ultimately, their understanding of manhood allows the political order depicted in the play to descend into chaos.