gender

• "Come you spirits (...) unsex me here." - lady macbeth


  Lady Macbeth, upon hearing that King Duncan will be staying the night in her castle, purges herself of her feminine qualities to have the strength to kill duncan. Women in the Jacobean era were seen as weak and delicate.
• "O gentle lady, tis not for you to hear what I can speak." - macduff


  Macduff tells lady macbeth that she is too gentle to even hear about the murder. (Dramatic irony) she in fact plotted the murder, showing that she does not possess the female traits of women from the Jacobean era.
• "Bring forth men-children only." - macbeth


  Macbeth tells lady macbeth that she is only capable of producing male babies because she is too masculine. In the Jacobean era, women were gentle, delicate and emotional, none of the qualities that lady macbeth portrays.
• "Dispute it like man." - malcom (to macduff)


  Macduff is told not to be emotional after his family was murdered as that was seen a feminine trait but to instead show his feelings in the form of violence and that was the ideal trait for men in the Jacobean era.