Shakespeare's views of Manliness

1.“The raven himself is hoarse

That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan

Under my battlements. 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. Make thick my blood.

Stop up the access and passage to remorse,

That no compunctious visitings of nature

Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between

The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,

And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers,

Wherever in your sightless substances

You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night,

And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,

That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,

Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark

To cry “Hold, hold!””

Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 28-44, Lady Macbeth to herself

Context/Paraphrase: Lady Macbeth is receiving the news of the king’s arrival to the Macbeths’ estate. This quote is Lady Macbeth talking to herself about her plot to kill Duncan and advance her husband onto the throne.

Interpretation/Explanation: Lady Macbeth says “,unsex me here,” and what she means by that is make me into a man so I can act more cruelly. So what Shakespeare is saying about man is that he is crueler and capable of greater deeds of evil than women.

2.“Prithee, peace:

I dare do all that may become a man;

Who dares do more is none.”

Act 1, Scene 7, Line 46, Macbeth to Lady Macbeth

Context/Paraphrase: Duncan and his entourage are enjoying the hospitality of Macbeth. This quote is when Macbeth is telling his wife to stop trying to convince him to go through with the murder.

Interpretation/Explanation: Macbeth is saying that a man must follow the proper code of ethics and that if a man does more than that, that they aren’t a man anymore. This shows that Shakespeare thought that if a man was to be a man that they had to follow society’s unwritten and unspoken rules.

 

3.“What beast was ’t, then,

That made you break this enterprise to me?

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. Nor time nor place

Did then adhere, and yet you would make both.

They have made themselves, and that their fitness now…”

Act 1, Scene 7, Line 47-54, Lady Macbeth to Macbeth

Context/Paraphrase: Duncan and his entourage are enjoying the hospitality of Macbeth. This quote is when Lady Macbeth is convincing Macbeth to go through with their plan murder Duncan and she is questioning his resolve.

Interpretation/Explanation: Now Macbeth doubts whether or not he could go through with their plan and she is confused as to why he told her of his plan if he doesn’t plan to go through with it. Lady Macbeth is saying that you were a man when you wrote the letter to her and that he can be even more of a man if dares to do what he only thought about before. This shows that Shakespeare thought men had to be daring and bold to be a man.   

 

4.”Bring forth men-children only,

For thy undaunted mettle should compose

Nothing but males. Will it not be received,

When we have marked with blood those sleepy two

Of his own chamber and used their very daggers,

That they have done ’t?”

Act 1, Scene 7, Lines 72-77, Macbeth to Lady Macbeth

Context/Paraphrase: Duncan and his entourage are enjoying the hospitality of Macbeth. This quote is when Lady Macbeth is convincing Macbeth to go through with their plan to kill Duncan and Macbeth is commenting on her resolve.

Interpretation/Explanation: Macbeth is calling his wife a fearless spirit and saying that she cannot bear a girl only men because she is so fearless. Shakespeare is saying that a man must have a dauntless spirit to be a man.

5.“Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier’s debt.

He only lived but till he was a man,

The which no sooner had his prowess confirmed

In the unshrinking station where he fought,

But like a man he died.”

Act 5, Scene 8, Lines 39-43, Ross to Malcom and Siward

Context/Paraphrase: After the battle of Dusinane when Malcom and Siward are surveying the battlefield. In this quote Ross is telling Siward of the death of his son by Macbeth’s hand in combat.

Interpretation/Explanation: This quote illustrates the older customs of manhood being achieved through combat. Manhood achieved through combat shows how man has to be strong physically to be a man.