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Macbeth was gender fluid, claims academic
All the main characters in Macbeth were gender-fluid, an academic has claimed.
Ruth Fernando, an English lecturer, claims William Shakespeare used the treacherous warrior king Macbeth and his scheming wife Lady Macbeth to 'disrupt and contrast the conventional ideas of masculinity and femininity, examining them in the form of androgyny'.
Ms Fernando also claims the three witches – described as the 'Weird Sisters' in the Scottish play – may actually have identified as male because they had beards.
The assistant lecturer at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura in Sri Lanka, has published a paper called Man, Woman Or Both? Shakespeare's Treatment of Androgyny and Lady Macbeth's Disempowerment.
She notes that 'while some have evidently looked at Shakespeare's treatment of gender, the interest concerning androgyny or transverse nature has been limited.'
The academic focuses on the famous line in which Lady Macbeth, who plots the murder of King Duncan, implores the spirit world to 'unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty'.
She believes Lady Macbeth 'is dissatisfied with her assigned gender roles' and feels displaced because she 'is unable to come to terms with her sexual orientation'.
Referring to the 'unsex' me lines, she concludes: 'This would be interpreted as an act of verbal transgendering.
'Lady Macbeth is neither strictly masculine nor feminine. She is, in fact, both, evidenced by 'unsexing' herself. This gender ambiguity propels the theorisation that Lady Macbeth is androgynous.
'Lady Macbeth with her 'unsexing' symbolically castrates herself ... Her words align with the idea of her verbal castrating of her femininity in order to become a man.'
Her husband is apparently also gender-fluid because he expresses doubts about killing Duncan, the King of Scotland, by famously hallucinating: 'Is this a dagger which I see before me?'
Ms Fernando states: 'His masculine ambition desires the opportunity, yet his feminine integrity collides with his ambitions creating a psychological conflict.
'In this case, Macbeth strikes as an androgynous man. He is physically masculine but mentally he displays guilt and kindness which are typically associated with femininity.'
She suggests that because Lady Macbeth accuses her husband of being 'too full o' th' milk of human kindness' he 'harbours feminine sympathies… It makes us question to what extent Macbeth is masculine.'
Ms Fernando concludes that the hags on the blasted heath – who foretell Macbeth's rise and fall – cannot be assumed to be women.
She says: ' Shakespeare begins his play with the three witches who are bearded, 'withered and so wild in their attire'. The androgynous positioning of the witches is biological as their physical difference is noted.
'Hence, Shakespeare's bearded witches not only signal at androgyny but counters the general perception of witches being solely women.'
The academic suggests that the emergence of the theatre, as well as Queen Elizabeth I's ascension to the throne, triggered a 'subtle rebuttal of gender hierarchy', in part because initially 'female characters in plays were performed by men and young boys until the Restoration.'
She claims that 16th century England saw 'the acceptance of predefined gender roles being questioned'.
However, Lady Macbeth's suicide, Ms Fernando claims, is a result of the 'disempowerment' caused by her androgyny.
'The Renaissance oppressive gender paradigms have trapped her into spheres of femininity and masculinity to which she does not necessarily belong.'
Shakespeare's play was based on historical Scottish figures. Nobleman Macbeth became King of Scotland in 1040 after his troops killed his predecessor Duncan on the battlefield. He ruled for 17 years before he, too, died as rival factions fought for the throne with the monarchy eventually passing back to Duncan's son Malcolm Canmore.
But beyond these bare facts, the remainder of Shakespeare's tragedy is a fictional imagining of treason and intrigue intertwining with the supernatural.
First performed around 400 years ago, its vivid, grotesque imagery and profound commentary on human weaknesses have seen it remain a classic piece of literature. It has given the English language common phrases such as 'the milk of human kindness', 'sound and fury', 'the be-all and end-all' and 'something wicked this way comes'.
