The document discusses scholarly ideas about sexuality, witchcraft and gender in Shakespeare's Macbeth. It poses several questions about these themes, such as whether Lady Macbeth questions Macbeth's masculinity to convince him to commit murder, and if the witches use sexuality as a tool to manipulate characters. The document also examines stereotypes in the play, including whether Macbeth's willingness to include his wife challenges norms of the time that defined the political realm as masculine.

1. Macbeth – Scholarly Ideas
Part 2
Sexuality, Witchcraft and Gender in Macbeth

3. Article 1: Biggins, D. (1976) Sexuality, Witchcraft,
and Violence in Macbeth. Shakespeare Studies 8
• http://englishvink.pbworks.com/f/Sexuality+Witchcraft+and+Violenc
e+in+Macbeth.doc

4. To whom does Lady
Macbeth speak to
when she says ‘take
my milke for Gall’, a
demon?

5. Macbeth says,
‘No spurre to
pricke his
ambition’ is
this a sexual
reference?

6. Lady Macbeth links
Macbeth’s unwillingness
to murder to his
impotence / lack of ability
to perform.

7. Air drawn
dagger as a
phallic
symbol?

8. The witches
habit of
prevention
sexual relations.
Do you think
this is one of
their strategies
to break apart
Macbeth and
Lady Macbeth in
the play?

9. Do the Witches
not using
sexuality as a
tool show a
failing of their
technique?
Hecate seems
disappointed

10. Is violence
important
to the
nobility
only when
bound by
social rules

11. Article 2: Asp, Carolyn. "`Be Bloody, bold and resolute':
Tragic Action and Sexual Stereotyping in
Macbeth." EXPLORING Shakespeare, Gale, 2003. Student
Resources in Context.
• http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ2115508860/SUIC?u=61ehss&
xid=d5cf403c#.WLKpfyT0RzY.twitter

12. Do sexual
stereotypes in
Macbeth
impede
peoples
awareness of
themselves,
limiting their
genuine
personality

13. Lady Macbeth’s
society thinks of
femininity as
weakness, so she has
to cast it aside.

14. Macbeth is
differentiated
from other males
in the play
because he is
willing to leave
his fantasies
unrestricted.

15. In Macbeth’s
Scotland, violence is
limited to males.
‘Women having to
fight’ is described as
a sign that the
world will end. Does
Shakespeare aim to
challenge and
address stereotypes
in Macbeth.

16. In the play women are defined
as weak, non-political and
incapable of dealing with
violence.
Macduff is a foil to Macbeth in
the sense that he shuts down
his wife, and leaves here well
out of his manly affairs.
Is one of Macbeth’s failings in
the eyes of society his
willingness to welcome his
wife into the man’s realm?

17. Macduff and Lady
Macduff are the
‘normative couple’ in
the play.
They don’t
communicate or
understand each
other, Shakespeare
provides them as a
positive example.

18. In Scottish society in
Macbeth, womanliness is
weakness. A strong
woman needs to disown
or cast aside her gender
to be strong.
Macbeth is without
chauvinistic beliefs, he
wants to share all
decisions and all power
with her, Shakespeare
shows this as negative.

19. Potency is the core male virtue
and maternity is the female core
virtue.
Lady Macbeth states that she is
willing to give up her maternity
(child-bearing and mothering
ability) for power.
She then taunts his virility, and
inability to ‘perform the deed’.
Does Lady Macbeth use sex as a
metaphor to get Macbeth to
murder?