Manhood
Banquo says to the witches, "you should be women, / And yet your beards forbid me to interpret / That you are so" (1.3.45-47). The "should" means that they look like women, probably because they are wearing dresses. Part of the weird sisters' weirdness is the fact that they appear to be both women and men. [Scene Summary] When Lady Macbeth is telling herself that she can murder King Duncan, she cries out, "Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, / And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full / Of direst cruelty!" (1.5.40-43). If the spirits "unsex" her, she won't be bothered by a woman's kindness or remorse. She will be a cruel killer, like a man. [Scene Summary] When Macbeth tells his wife that they're not going to kill King Duncan, after all, she accuses him of being a coward, and he asks her to just be quiet, saying, "Prithee, peace: / I dare do all that may become a man; / Who dares do more is none" (1.7.45-47). He means that a real man wouldn't commit murder. His wife has the opposite view, and sarcastically replies, "What beast was't, then, / That made you break this enterprise to me? / When you durst do it, then you were a man" (1.7.47-49). She wins the argument. [Scene Summary] In the scene in which Macduff discovers the bloody body of King Duncan and awakens everyone in Macbeth's castle, most of the characters appear in their nightclothes. When Banquo proposes that they all meet to discuss the murder of the King, he mentions that they all need to put on their clothes, saying that they should meet when they have their "naked frailties hid, / That suffer in exposure" (2.3.126-127). Macbeth agrees to the meeting by saying, "Let's briefly put on manly readiness, / And meet i' the hall together" (2.3.133-134). In short, it appears that Macbeth feels that he is more of a man when he's wearing his daytime clothes. [Scene Summary] When Macbeth tries to convince two men that Banquo is their enemy, they don't respond as he wants them to. He then asks sarcastically if they are willing to let Banquo keep their families in poverty forever. Instead of showing the hot anger that Macbeth is looking for, First Murderer only says, "We are men, my liege." Then Macbeth gets even more sarcastic, saying, "Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men; / As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, / Shoughs, water-rugs and demi-wolves, are clept / All by the name of dogs" (3.1.90-94). He goes on to say that they won't be real men until they're ready to kill Banquo. [Scene Summary] When the Ghost of Banquo appears at Macbeth's banquet, Macbeth reacts strongly, showing his fear both in words and body language. However, he is the only one who sees the ghost, so the banquet guests are astounded, and Lady Macbeth is angry that her husband is making a fool of himself. She takes him aside and asks, Are you a man?" (3.4.57). He replies, "Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that / Which might appall the devil" (3.4.58-59). She pooh-poohs him, and tells him that his "flaws and starts, / Impostors to true fear, would well become / A woman's story at a winter's fire, / Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!" (3.4.62-65). A "flaw" is a sudden gust of wind; in a person it would be a very loud sigh or gasp. A "start" is one of those jerky or jumpy movements that we make when we're startled. And if a story is "authorized" by a grandmother, the grandmother is the only one who says it's true; in other words, it's a fairy tale. Thus Lady Macbeth is telling her husband that he is acting like a nervous, foolish woman, not like a man at all. A little later, when the Ghost of Banquo appears for the second time, Macbeth acts more manly. Saying, "What man dare, I dare" (3.4.98), he challenges the ghost to come to him in any other shape -- bear, rhinoceros, tiger, or living man. And at the end of the speech, the ghost exits, as though Macbeth has driven it away. [Scene Summary] When Macduff hears the news that his wife and children have been murdered, he pulls his hat down over his eyes, apparently because he feels that he is about to weep. Then, in a passionate outburst, he cries out, All my pretty ones? / Did you say all? O hell-kite! All? / What, all my pretty chickens and their dam / At one fell swoop?" (4.3.217-220). Disconcerted by this, Malcolm tells him to keep his emotions in check, to "Dispute it like a man" (4.3.220) His idea is the familiar one that real men don't cry, but Macduff knows better, and says, "I shall do so; / But I must also feel it as a man" (4.3.220-221). Malcolm, however, continues to urge him to turn his grief into revengeful anger, and Macduff answers, "O, I could play the woman with mine eyes / And braggart with my tongue!" (4.3.230-231). Macduff is saying that he could "play" a woman's part and weep, while at the same time boasting of the manly revenge he will take on Macbeth. He means that any emotion can be faked, but that his emotions -- both womanly and manly -- are sincere. Macduff then goes on to promise that he will indeed take revenge upon the monster Macbeth. At this, Malcolm is satisfied, and says, "This tune goes manly. (4.3.235). [Scene Summary] As the Scottish forces march to join the English in Birnam wood, Lennox comments that among the English "there is Siward's son, / And many unrough youths that even now / Protest their first of manhood" (5.2.9-11). "Unrough youths" are those who are so young that they have yet to grow beards. In this context, "protest" means almost the opposite of what it does now; rather than complaining about their manhood, these youths are ready to prove that they are men. [Scene Summary] In the last scene of the play, when Macduff tells Macbeth that he was not "of woman born," Macbeth answers, "Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, / For it hath cow'd my better part of man!" (5.8.17-18). Macduff has made him feel fear, and to Macbeth's way of thinking, the "better part of man" is courage. Later in the same scene, Ross tells Siward the news of his son's death: Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt:This was Young Siward's first battle, and he didn't prove that he was a man until he fought Macbeth without shrinking away from the challenge. [Scene Summary] |