Macbeth essay
Macbeth is a play written by William Shakespeare in the 1600th Century, when England was under the rule of King James. Shakespeare was born and lived in Stafford upon Avon. Macbeth was one of his famous works, and it is about a man, Macbeth who kills the king, so he can rule England. The plot is complicated and the play develops a character profile of Macbeth showing how his mind and morals change and develop. The play can be analysed from three different perspectives: Prose, Theatre, and Poetry and I will, in all three. I will however only analyse two sections. Act One Scene Seven, and Act Five Scene FiveAlone after dinner, Macbeth has the first opportunity to think about the murder of his king. At first this was only a dream, but now it is a real moral problem for him. He knows that the crime must be punished; divine justice in a "life to come" does not worry him so mush as judgement in this earthly life. Then he considers the duties he owes to Duncan as his kinsman, of a subject to his king, and a host to his guest. Finally he thinks of the character of Duncan, a king of almost divine excellence. Macbeth has a vision of the heavenly powers horrified by this murder; he sees Pity personified as
This is the first main soliloquy. It is also the longest. At a glance one notices that most of the ideas are repeated, accented, reinstated. This is because Shakespeare has realised that in theatre the audience will generally only pick up about half of what is said. This section is where Macbeth is pondering over whether or not to kill King Duncan. In his first line Shakespeare uses alliteration, so that immediately the audience is aware of the situation. Shakespeare creates some interesting imagery in his language. A particular favourite of mine is that of "Vaulting Ambition" This complicated image shows of how if you climb too high up then the fall becomes greater. This is a good metaphor in him killing the rightful king. The repetition of "done" reinforces a feeling doing. The line also shows that Shakespeare liked to play on his words. Macbeth is thinking of murdering his king, and he plays with the different meanings of the word "done." He is saying that if the business of the murder was ended ("done") as soon as it was performed ("done"), then it would be a good thing that it should be carried out ("done") as soon as possible. In the rest of the play Shakespeare shows us that the murder of King Duncan was not complete whe
Some common words found in the essay are:
King Duncan, Five View, View Macbeth, Vaulting Ambition, Avon Macbeth, Scene Seven, Defeated Macbeth, Theatre Poetry, James Shakespeare, Macbeth Macbeth, murder king, character profile, king duncan, line shakespeare, act scene, kill king, act scene seven, vaulting ambition, scene seven,
Approximate Word count = 843
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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