Lady Macbeth is presented as a strong female character through the manipulation of challenging Macbeth's bravery, by forcing him to commit murder to prove his worth. She ruthlessly emasculates Macbeth's manhood whilst implying that he is acting cowardly when pushing him to commit murder by a ruthless assertation of dominance 'When you durst do it, then you were a man'. The verb 'durst' is used to create an urgent challenging imperative. She uses this to turn Macbeth's earlier, fleeting thought of murder into a test of his strength, heavily implying that "inaction and hesitation are signs of weakness". There is also an element of theatrical irony in her expression of manipulation, the audience knows that Macbeth's previous bravery in battle made him a 'man'. However, Lady Macbeth redefines this, which has an intense sense of irony because by completing this murder Macbeth should become less of a man ( morally corrupt ) then more of one. Manipulation was shown as a strong female trait in the Jacobean times because it resembales power and control which sent a strong progressive feminist message out to the audience that women could have power and control over men through being manipulative. Furthermore, Lady Macbeth is also presented as a strong female character through her clever use of entisement and way of manipulative convincing for Macbeth to kill king Duncan. 'Was the hope drunk' is a rhetorical question used to explain to Macbeth how he is being ridiculous and to try and pressure him into going through with this murder as she can see he is freaking out about it. Lady Macbeth wants to seem like she can turn into a ruthless man and not be phased by murder - but in the Jacobean times women were not independent and/or seen as capable for much - so therefore she had to propose her ambitions and strengthfullness onto Macbeth. Her ruthless question with an undertone of mockery towards Macbeth projects the theme of her strength as she is seen to be mocking his hesitation of not being able to commit the murder of king Duncan, all whilst attacking his masculinity and committment. This made Lady Macbeth to be seen as especially strong as it was extremely unheard of for a wife to be mocking her husband - like how she does to him - in the Jacobean times. Lady Macbeth is seen as a extremely strong female character, in act 3 scene 4, she attacks Macbeth's masculinity to regain control when he panics over Banquo's ghost ( at the banquet ), leading her to ruthlessly ask him 'Are you a man?', this short sentenced rhetorical question, looks at how Lady Macbeth equates manhood with ruthless violence, framing his fear/anxiety as a cowardice act, to assert dominance over him. Occuring at the Banquet, Lady Macbeth uses this interigational tactic-like question to mask Macbeth's madness and help him to maintain the facade of a strong kingly ruler. Shakespeare highlights the theme of gender roles reversed, where Lady Macbeth adopts the traditional role of being ruthless, strong and powerful whilst projecting her husband as the antithesis of her. This emphasizes the theme of Lady Macbeth being a strong character. In addition, in act 1 scene 5, Lady Macbeth is seen as an extremely strong female character when she, pleas to the three witches to 'unsex me here' this demand for her greatest desires is so she can become the overpowered ruthless person that Macbeth refuses, she does this because she believes that he is to weak and emasculated to go through with the murder of King Duncan, so she wants to be able to enable her to commit murder. She is asking the dark spirits to strip away her feminine traits - associated with gentleness, and nurturing in the Jacobean era-. The plea signifies a desire to abandon her femininity and gain masculinity. In the Jacobean era, masculinity was seen as holding much more power than being feminine, therefore Lady Macbeth wants to be seen as ruthless enough to be able to commit the murder of king Duncan. She is seeking exert amounts of empowerment, showing of her character to be seen as a strong female.