Essay Sample: Theme of Courage in Macbeth

Macbeth is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare in the early 17th century. The play's main character, the courageous Macbeth, is told by three witches he will be King of Scotland. Consumed by his ambition and desire, he seeks to solidify his place on the throne, and so with the encouragement of his wife, he goes on to kill the king. After being crowned the new king, Macbeth quickly loses his initial loyalty to the country, and his pureness of heart promptly fades and is replaced with his need for power. Although in the play, Macbeth commits many heinous acts, his manhood and masculinity are constantly challenged by his own wife when he demonstrates even the slightest bit of hesitation or guilt at the idea of committing these crimes. However, I disagree with Lady Macbeth on her opinion of what masculinity consists of. I believe that what it takes to be a man is not reduced to a ruthless and undaunted nature, especially in today's society.

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both seem to believe there to be a direct correlation between one’s manhood and one’s brutality. In Act 1, Scene 7, Macbeth tells his wife may she only birth sons, saying, “...thy undaunted mettle should compose nothing but males,” and Lady Macbeth shows no disagreement. This tells me that not only do they associate masculinity with naked aggression, but that they do not think one with strong femininity has the capability of being wicked. This is supported earlier on in Act 1, Scene 5 when Lady Macbeth calls on evil spirits to “unsex” her, effectively saying she wishes to become less like a woman and more like a man in order for her to achieve the level of inhumanity needed in order to kill the king. The ideology of manliness portrayed in the play is quite the contrast to what I consider it to truly be.

The notion presented in Macbeth is that men are the only ones capable of immense hostility, and the fact that they are still often held up to these heartless expectations in today’s world is entirely backward and outdated. This mindset restrains men to a standard of living that requires them to be tough and unrelenting, and in turn, causes many men to live in fear of being seen as “weak”. A man does not need to be violent and unsympathetic in order to be “manly”. I believe that a true man is one who is self-assured of their own masculinity, no matter how they act, dress, or feel. Masculinity is not defined by physical and brutal strength, but rather by one’s strength of character. If anything, Shakespeare seems to contradict himself throughout the play, seeing as the women are also sources of savagery in the play in the characters of Lady Macbeth and the witches.