Gender Ambiguity in Shakespeare's Macbeth

Suspicion of the Undecidable


Essay, 1996

6 Pages, Grade: 1


Excerpt

SUSPICION OF THE UNDECIDABLE

Gender ambiguity in Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Probably the most powerful lines lingering in the reader’s or audience’s memory after experiencing Macbeth are the hero’s words in reaction to the news of the death of his spouse:

“Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.” (V, 5, 23-28)

When life signifies nothing, does this play signify anything? However simple the question may seem, the answer is hardly straightforward. Trying to stay away from moralising about vaulting ambition that doesn’t pay in the end I would like to speculate about possible significations of the play, not necessarily connected to the plot, or to put it in another way, examine the possibly significant themes and motives recurrent in the play: ambiguity, uncertainty or indeterminacy of meaning. Equivocation is the term used in the play itself (e.g. the porter scene in III, i) and it well captures the theme of walking the tightrope above the abyss of single, definite meaning on one hand, and the endless proliferation of meaning on the other. One cannot escape the impression that the thematically prominent characters of the play (Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, the witches, the Porter) virtually evade committing themselves to definite meanings.

Here I have reached the point where it is appropriate to try and define the undefinable, namely to suggest my understanding of ambiguity and how it works in the play. Ambiguity is manifest either overtly in the lines of the characters, who may or may not be conscious of the double meaning of the words they are using, or it can be inherent in the text and not confined to a particular utterance of a character. Before examining these two aspects separately, let us look at the issue of ambiguity itself in more detail, as it comes to the fore in the play. Let us take, rather arbitrarily, perhaps, the term equivocation as a common denominator for phenomena like ambiguity, uncertainty, indeterminacy or undecidability, irony and dramatic irony could be included here as well for the purpose of argument. Subject to equivocation are the key issues like gender, identity, personal integrity. To proceed further from this point, we could start with the antitheses, the very antagonism of which is under sustained scrutiny.

[...]

Excerpt out of 6 pages

Details

Title
Gender Ambiguity in Shakespeare's Macbeth
Subtitle
Suspicion of the Undecidable
College
University Of Wales Institute, Cardiff  (Cardiff School of English, Communication and Philosophy)
Course
Shakespeare's Tragedies
Grade
1
Author
Year
1996
Pages
6
Catalog Number
V134693
ISBN (eBook)
9783640427000
ISBN (Book)
9783640425327
File size
361 KB
Language
English
Notes
This paper was written in the course on Shakespeare's Tragedies and deals with the deconstruction of the binary oppositions usually taken for granted, like: male/female, signle/double, life/death etc.
Keywords
Shakespeare, Macbeth, Gender, Critical theory, Deconstruction, Roles, Ambiguity
Quote paper
Dr.phil. Barbora Sramkova (Author), 1996, Gender Ambiguity in Shakespeare's Macbeth, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/134693

Comments

  • No comments yet.
Read the ebook
Title: Gender Ambiguity in Shakespeare's Macbeth



Upload papers

Your term paper / thesis:

- Publication as eBook and book
- High royalties for the sales
- Completely free - with ISBN
- It only takes five minutes
- Every paper finds readers

Publish now - it's free