Macbeth Essay

Shakespeare uses a large variety of methods to capture the audiences interest. In this essay about Shakespeare (his play Macbeth) I will be talking about 5 of his main different techniques these will be dramatic devises,character,language,narrative techniques and the themes he used.

Shakespeare keeps his audience engaged in Macbeth through the use of dramatic devices. one of these is a soliloquy which builds a strong tension between only the audience and the character this is also a form of dramatic irony. when lady Macbeth decides to become evil and she pronounces her massive soliloquy she says “nor haven peep through the blanket of the dark.” lady Macbeth is saying do not let anything good stand in my way so nothing can distract me from being evil so that I can make Macbeth become king and I can finally be the queen.This is a dramatic device and a form of dramatic irony because lady Macbeth who is the character is building a strong tension with the audience because they do not know what the next thing she might do is now that she has became an evil person in the play.

Shakespeare also keeps his audience strongly engaged in Macbeth through the use of characters one of which is super natural in the time when Shakespeare first made Macbeth the super natural where believed to be real and also where believed to be evil so Shakespeare really used this well by having the first opening scene with the three witches this instantly would have made the audience want to watch more because it would have already produce a sense of mystery and action at the same time. By opening the play with the three witches it shows what the sort of theme or genre of the play will be like in this case the genre is tragedy. This is character because he is using the super natural which is the character to Mack the audience want to watch more.

Shakespeare audience are engaged also because of the language he uses one of the things he puts in his language is the iambic pentameter he uses the iambic pentameter to make his plays and books more interesting it puts a rhythm to his writing. For example when Macbeth is having visions of a dagger he says this soliloquy:

Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee!
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight, or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshal’st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o’ th’ other senses,
Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still;
And on thy blade and dugeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before. There’s no such thing.
It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes. Now e’er the one half-world
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain’d sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate’s offerings, and wither’d murder,
Alarum’d by his sentinel, the wolf,

This is an example of the iambic pentameter in Shakespeare writing he has took one of his strongest soliloquy in his play Macbeth and has used the iambic pentameter to make it even better. This is a form of the iambic pentameter under the category of language because it goes (unstressed stressed unstressed stressed) and so on.

A great way that Shakespeare keeps his audience interested in his play is by using narrative techniques one of these is foreshadowing which increases the tension with the audience massively due to the fact that they do not know what is going to happen but Shakespeare wants to let them know so he sort of teases them using foreshadowing this will make the audience engaged because they want to know what is going to happen. In Macbeth an example of foreshadowing is at the beginning of Macbeth with the three witches when they talk to each other about meeting with Macbeth and tow of the things they say are “when the battles lost and won” and also “fair is foul and foul is fair”. This is an example of foreshadowing because he is sort of giving some information away about what is going to happen but not enough to be certain about it.

There are many different themes in Macbeth but out of them I am going to choose ambition. Ambition is one of the main themes of Macbeth because lady Macbeth is ambitious in the way of being evil and trying to do things evil such as pres wade Macbeth to kill the king. Also Macbeth is ambitious in staying the king and also in wining all of the battles he fights in. For example Macbeth attempts to kill Banquo and his sons so that he can stay the king unlike the prophecy said.

Gathering all of this information together Macbeth uses a vary vast amount of techniques to keep his audience interested in his plays and I personally think that he has achieved that because I know that when I was reading his book Macbeth I really enjoyed it and it did keep me engage.

made by Tobias Sonnex

Total amount of words:912