Macbeth Essay Example for Free

Macbeth Essay Macbeth is a play that is written by William Shakespeare, who is a famous poet and playwright. William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth is a tragedy. The earliest account of its performance was from 1606. Tragedies contain distressing events that involve the main character or characters. These types of plays usually contain the death of a liked character or the main character or characters. Macbeth’s genre is a tragedy due to some of its themes. One theme of the play that portraits a tragic event is the theme of ambition. This is where Macbeth gets the idea of being king, but for him to become king he kills multiple times by committing a murder himself or getting others to kill on his behalf, like with the killing of King Duncan, Banquo, Lady Macduff and her child, which are tragic events due to death. The other theme is prophecy where the supernatural exists with the three witches, who give the prophecy to Macbeth about him becoming king, and that’s where Macbeth’s ambition starts, which turns into evil and also leads to tragic events. There is also the theme of reality that shows a tragic event as this leads to the death of Macbeth. Due to his belief in his own invincibility and he is killed by Macduff. A Greek philosopher called Aristotle said that all tragedies must have these characteristics: a man of high social standing, experiences a downfall, because of the flaw it is revealed only as a result of a tragic action of the narrative. Macbeth fits Aristotle characteristics by its structure of the play. It fits the characteristics by this: rising action of exposition is the very begging at the play. The complication, which is the witches’ prophecy, that leads to the rising action of the murders of people in the play. The climax is when Macbeth is the king. The falling action followers by Macbeth kills more to retain his title of king and Lady Macbeth dies and the catastrophe which is where Macbeth gets killed due to his ambition turning evil, and the resolution which is where Malcolm becomes king. The structure fits Aristotle characteristics as Macbeth the man with high social standing, experiences a downfall, which is the climax of killing for his ambition, which then, leads to a result of tragic action of which Macbeth the main character is killed. In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare uses different types of language like verse, which is written as poetry. Most of it is blank verse and rhymed couplets. He also uses prose, which is everything that is not in poetry. In the play, Shakespeare uses a blank verse, which has ten syllables with five stresses in each line. Shakespeare uses rhymed couplets in Macbeth to let the audience know it’s the end of a scene due to the fact the theatres in the 16th and 17th century did not have curtains or lightening effects like ours today due to show the end of a scene. In Macbeth act 2 scene 3 Malcolm says at the end of the scene. â€Å"But shift away: theres warrant in that theft. Which steals itself, when theres no mercy left† Here is a rhyming couplet as the pairs of line rhyme by the words theft and left, by this rhyming couplet signals the audience and actors back then that it is the end of the scene. Macbeth also has prose language in the play. Shakespeare uses prose for those characters that have comic and low statuses, as the prose structure does not have a formal structure of poetry and it can mean many manners of ideas. In Macbeth prose is used when Lady Macbeth is sleep walking in Act 5 scene 1 when she says â€Å"Yet heres a spot. † The use of prose here shows Lady Macbeth is ill and going mad by her losing her high status as she speaks in prose which is normally used by low status characters. Macbeth also uses paradox in some of his lines like with the witches saying at start in scene 1 act 1, â€Å"Fair is foul, foul is fair†. This quote from Macbeth is where the witches are saying things are not what they seem, but Macbeth writes the line differently than that in paradox, which is when it contrasts itself. Therefore, it makes the line more interesting to listen to, and it get us the audience to think more what is being meant, as it can be very ambiguous. The meaning of this line is more embraced, as it does seem things are not what it seems when the line is paradox. In Macbeth there is a lot of imagery text like with metaphors, which are something, called something else like with this quote Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell: Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace†. This is when Malcolm describes Macbeth as a fallen angle, which implies Macbeth is perfect, and cannot do wrong and shows Malcolm thinks very highly of Macbeth. When Shakespeare uses metaphors it gives a great image to the audience, as you can see it gives us a better picture of what Malcolm feelings are of Macbeth. In Macbeth imagery text is used by similes as well, which is something is described as something else like here, â€Å"And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, which was not so before. This is where the floating danger which Macbeth see in front of him turn bloody and the simile describes the blade as â€Å"dudgeon gouts of blood† which says it has lots of blood on it. When Shakespeare uses similes it gives a powerful image of what something looks like as the blade give the image of loads of blood rather than just a bit. Also Shakespeare uses personification in Macbeth which is something is described as human like â€Å"Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak. Here the environment is being described like humans saying the stones move and the trees speak which is give a very unusual image to the audience but make them more engaged to watch and listen. Macbeth is a play that is loosely based on events in the past in the year of 1040-1057 in Scotland. The events are based on a real person called Macbeth, who ruled as king in Scotland in 1040-1057. He did overthrow the previous king Duncan. The real Lady Macbeth was a granddaughter of another king, who was actually murdered by king Duncan’s grandfather. Malcolm and Donald Bain were sons of King Duncan, with Malcolm becoming king after the death of Macbeth. You can see Shakespeare’s play had the similarities of the past with the some of the character names and their position like the real Macbeth became king after Duncan who died who was king previously, but the difference is that there was no murder of King Duncan in the past like there is in the play. But I think Shakespeare would have got the idea of murder of Duncan by the real Lady Macbeth’s grandfather who was killed by the real King Duncan’s grandfather. The audiences of 1606 who watched the play would have been shocked of the death of Macbeth in the play as they see him in war and succeeding, they see him being loyal to the king, and that he could have been seen as a hero. However, when he turns evil by killing for his ambition to come true he is seen as villain in some audiences eyes, but they also see him die. This would shock the audience as their hero turned into evil and died. This may make the audience think whom they can actually trust; especially the king would at that time have been King James, in case the same happened to him like King Duncan in the play. King James of Scotland would have seen Macbeth and I think his thoughts of the play may have shocked him. It would have shocked him as he would have empathised with king Duncan, and when he see him getting killed by what he had believed to have been a loyal friend, this would of worried him. King James would rethink his loyal friends, and would have been cautious in case a loyal friend would kill him as King Duncan was killed. The witches at the start of the play would have affected the audiences as in 1611; witchcraft was seen as real and very scary, so this would have attracted the audience’s attention and spooks them a bit. In England at 1563, there were laws placed against witchcraft by Queen Elizabeth. In 1603 queen Elizabeth died, and when the play was performed I think the first scene of the witches would have irritated some people due to the fact that it was disrespecting their previous queen Elizabeth’s law against witchcraft. I think some audiences may have thought Shakespeare was a witch of some sort, for writing witchcraft into his play Macbeth, which may lead to people to think his plays was good though witchcraft was being used to write them. I also think male audiences in 1606 would have been offended by Lady Macbeth overruling and controlling a man in the play which is Macbeth, when she orders him to kill King Duncan. In 1606 women were lower and that men were leaders and were not suppose to be controlled by women. But in the play it shows Lady Macbeth controlling Macbeth which I think may made male audiences angry, for seeing a women controlling a man. I think women audiences in 1606 would have been shocked by Lady Macbeth controlling of Macbeth, as this was not reality for them. I think this play may have offended women by the fact that Shakespeare’s character Macbeth did what a women told him to do and ended up being killed, which could imply the message do not listen to women as it turn out bad. Today’s audience of men or women would not be offended by the play of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as there is equal rights today between both genders, and that women can tell a man what to do as this is reality these day. As well audiences today would not be spooked by the witchcraft scenes as people today do not believe in witchcraft due to science proving a most of it wrong. Nevertheless, I do think the death scene of killing of Macduff’s son would have offended both audiences. A scene of a child being killed is chilling for both audiences of today and in 1606. The first scene that I will analyse that guides the audience to a tragic event is the one which is Macbeth’s soliloquy, act 2 scene 1. In this scene Macbeth imagines a dagger floating towards Duncan’s chamber where he is sleeping. Macbeths talks to himself saying â€Å"is this a dagger, which I see before me? â€Å" Macbeth cannot believe what he is seeing and questions himself. Before this scene Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to commit murder by killing the king Duncan. This scene results in the murder of king Duncan who was a noble, great king. The language in the quote asks a question with the question mark and the word â€Å"is†, Macbeth here is imagining a dagger, which the audience could not see due to no props, so with Macbeth questioning himself shows the audience that Macbeth is imagining something. The audience listening to Macbeth question himself would put them on edge, as they would see a person having a strange hallucination in front of their eyes. The question Macbeths asks is rhetorical, as he does not expect an answer as he talking to himself. With Shakespeare using a rhetorical question here I think it helps the audience understands Macbeth is seeing something in his imagination. If this scene was staged with Macbeth more in a panic, worried and scared rather than just confused when imagining the dagger, this would make audiences more disturbed I think, and would have caused them to share some of the emoion of macbeth. Macbeth‘s character could have even cried during this scene which would have shown more emotion of fear. The audience would perceive the character of macbeth as frighted and much more hesitant to commit murder and therefore would have felt sorry for him at one point. The second scene that i will analyse that guides the audience to a tragic event is the one which features the killing of Macduff‘s child, which is in Act 4 scene 2. Before this scene happens, you have Macbeth ordering for Lady Macduff and her child to be killed. At the end of the secne the son is killed, with murderers following Lady Macduff to kill her as well. The child says to his mother which is Lady Macduff â€Å"He has killed me, mother: Run away, I pray you! â€Å". Here the child is shouting to his mother to run, so she does not get killed. The language shakespeare uses here is quite emotive. For a start the boy is shouting as by the exclamation mark, this will get the auidence attention from watching the play as its more dramatic. Its also dramatic by the words â€Å"pray youâ€Å" as the boy is asking God for her safety. This makes the audience upset here becuase as the boy who is himself doomed, does not want his mother to die, which we know it is going to happen. Its quite emotive as the boy shows affection for his mother and not wanting her to be murdered, this give the audience strong feeling of sadness. The way this scene is staged is that Lady Macduff runs off set with the murderers following her. It would be much more upsetting for the auidence to watch her be killed in front of her son. Audiences watching this scene would now have seen macbeth as even more evil as they have now watched another murder which he ordered to be committed. The most chilling scene for myself would have been the murder of Lady Macduff and her child, as i think its upsetting for seeing a child being killed. I think that Macbeth is greedy and evil has he had his ambition come true for others missfortune which i think is greedy, and doing murder of a innocent child is just plain evil in my opion. Overall i think the play macbeth has a good, easy to follow story line.