The Most Important Moments In Macbeth
How Shakespeare interests and entertains audiences
Shakespeare interests and entertains his audience in three key scenes in a number of diffirent ways. In this essay I will explore the diffirent ways Shakespeare develops the plot, theme, characters and imagery.
In the first key scene, Act 2 Scene 1 Shakespeare firstly uses a soliloquy, “ Is this a dagger which I see before me” this is an exmaple of a time when Shakespeare uses a soliloquy and the soliloquy also makes the scene more dramatic because it shows Macbeth’s feelings which lets the audience know Macbeth better. This is also dramatic irony which means that the audience knows more than other character and in this case the audience knows that Macbeth is going mad because he’s seeing a dagger in front of and Lady Macbeth doesn’t know this along with other characters. Shakespeare included this scene as a way for us to see Macbeth’s transition from a respecting strong lord to a murderer. This ties in with the themes because Act 2 Scene 1 shows madness because Macbeth sees a dagger in front of him which leads him to the king and Macbeth goes mad after seeing the dagger. We can see this in a later scene with Macbeth dining with the lords. Shakespeare holds our interest by making dagger scene very dramatic.
Shakespeare firstly makes Macbeth look very surprised and his reaction was something we didn’t expect. Shakespeare secondly makes the scene contain Macbeth and only Macbeth so there are not distractions and this makes us focus on Macbeth a lot better. Lastly, for imagery Shakespeare makes Macbeth describe the dagger which is useful for movies so people can put an image of the dagger in the film. This also helps us get an image of the dagger if we are reading and not watching a film with the dagger in it. Macbeth also asks questions and that makes the scene more dramatic because that shows Macbeth’s madness and him being confused.
For Act 2 Scene 2 Shakespeare firstly includes this scene to show us Macbeth guilt and Lady Macbeth’s manlyness (for the book version, in films they might show otherwise). This also shows us that Macbeth heavily regrets his decision fo killing the King because he says “Wake Duncan with thy knocking!” and this makes us feel sypathetic for the first time in the play. The theme for this act and scene is: regret- the theme is regret because Macbeth says a line about the fact that he wants Duncan alive. We can also see regret when Macbeth says “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean off my hand?” we can see that Macbeth is talking about the consequences of killing the king already. For character development Shakespeare introduces Lady Macbeth in this scene and that has a few effects. Firstly it shows that Shakespeare cares about all the characters.
Secondly, we can see Lady Macbeth’s manlyness when she tries to prove herself by insulting Macbeth. “I shame to wear a heart to white” this quote shows that Lady Macbeth is shaming Macbeth by saying that he has a faint heart. Shakespeare develops Macbeth by also showing his weak side, when he has to kill someone he really doesn’t want to kill. Finally, Shakespeare uses great language and imagery by firstly having Lady Macbeth say things we didn’t exept her to say. This shows us that women can also have control of the situation. Macbeth says his lines slowly and he keeps on repeating “Sleep no more” which makes the scene dramatic because firstly him saying words slowly shows the fact that Macbeth is taken over by guilt and him repeating the words “Sleep no more” shows us that he’s confused and he can’t sleep and that might result in him going mad. Shakespeare uses imagery by showing us that Macbeth is paranoid about the fact that he has blood on his hands. Macbeth also says “I had most need of blessing and ‘Amen’ stuck in my throat” this sentence said by Macbeth is one of his popular ones and it’s a powerful sentence because it tells us that Macbeth thinks that he won’t be able to say the word “Amen” because it’s stuck in his throat.
Lastly, for Act 3 Scene 4 Shakespeare firstly gives us the scene because the scene updates us on Macbeth’s state of mind. The scene shows us that Macbeth is still going mad and now he’s seeing Banquo in front of him. This scene also gives us information on how Macbeth feels after him sending out people to murder Banquo and his son. Shakespeare entertains us with the characters in this scene by showing us Macbeth’s changes in character. Macbeth is slowly turning mad and this scene reminds us of that. This scene also shows Lady Macbeth calming down the situation. That also shows us that Lady Macbeth is still in control of the situation even in this scene. Shakespeare also entertains us by showing Macbeth’s guilt in this scene. For the last part, the imagery and language there’s the ghost of Banquo. This is the most important part of this scene because there’s lots of imagery. Macbeth describes Banquo in this scene which entertains us as the audience because we can imagine how Banquo’s ghost looks like and we be creative with it. It can also help movie producers produce movies with the ghost in it. It can help because they can look at what Macbeth said and they can make a model of a ghost based on that. The bloody ghost also makes the scene more dramatic and that helps with entertaining the audience. For language Shakespeare uses short sentences that show that Macbeth’s terrified. “Behold! look! lo! How say you?” this is one example of a short sentence that shows that Macbeth’s going mad.
