We explored gender roles and gender fluidity in the play. After defining the traditional gender roles of women , we explored how Lady Macbeth breaks gender roles by demanding the "spirits" to "Unsex" her and to replace her mother's milk with bile. By contrast, Macbeth remains plagued by the moral dilemma of regicide until his wife emasculates him for placing morality above power and ambition. We noted Macbeth's reference to behaving as a "man" as a motif in the play. We further located and parsed extended metaphors describing Macbeth's vaulting ambition in terms of a horse that jumps too high and falls thereby suggesting Macbeth's eventual moral and mortal downfall .