Macbeth

'when you durst do it, then you were a man' she says. He opts to respond to his wife's accusations of 'unmanliness' and soon commits this murder in order to prove he is manly'. Typically gender construction tells us that weakness is associated with the female, and man gains honour through his strength and boldness in tough situations. But Macbeth loses his courage at the crucial moment and Lady Macbeth assumes his bloody responsibility. Her husband's weakness is not only shameful in Lady Macbeth's eyes; his weakness is also as unnatural as her strength. Such a reversal carries with it significant social ramifications.
             Macduff, after the discovery of the murder of his family is turned to grief. He is advised by Malcolm to turn that grief to anger, to 'blunt not the heat but enrage it;' that this 'tune goes manly' Macduff replies that he shall do so 'but I must also feel it as a man.' Macduff himself is devasted by the news of the death of his wife and family. He wants to feel depressed, he even wants to cry, but he is quickly told to turn these 'unmanly' feelings into anger and a hunger for revenge by his male peers: .
             Malcolm: Dispute it like a man.
             Macduff: I shall do so, but I must also feel it as a man .
             Malcolm: Be this the whetstone of your sword, let grief convert to anger: blunt not the heart but enrage it.
             This is an excellent example of the way men are expected to act. Even at the death of all his loved ones, society did not grant Macduff leave to grieve or show any feeling other than anger. This opinion and ideal of society is shown by Malcolm who acts as an upholder of the male stereotype.
             Lady Macduff upholds her familial role well. She is a truly domestic woman with two children whom she reveres passionately. She is murdered in her household, which symbolises to some viewers such as myself that she has never ventured out of it into the any other type of world other than that of a conjugal.