William Shakespeare wrote four great tragedies, the last of which was written in 1606 and titled Macbeth. In writing Macbeth, Shakespeare creates a sense of climax in Macbeth in many ways and these helped to make the story last long in reader’s memory. They are: The pace of the scenes which rise the speed of the story; the increasing eruption of supernatural through the play, it works as a foreshadowing which makes the climax in the highest point; the increasing curiosity as to Macbeth’s possible fate, these sense of fate and inevitability rise up the climax; the psychological collapse of Lady Macbeth; the build up of rhetoric to great soliloquy in the play are used to lead the readers to the think before the climax and give them a sense of it; and lastly, the tension created by the advancing army, it sparks off a tension to the readers to reach the excitement.
Climax is the point of final decision which will determine the outcome for good or bad, success or not. In this play, we can found there were many minor climaxes. Such as Act 3 scene 4 (the banquet scene), Macbeth has offered his guilt for all the people after he saw the ghost of Banquo which make him to the tragic end. In my opinion, the major climax was the moment that Macduff reveals to Macbeth that he is not woman born in Act 5 scene 8. While Macduff reveals to Macbeth that he is not of woman born, the readers must shocked as they mostly think that Macbeth would not be defeated by anyone according to the witches. The sudden expose in the scene make the readers reach to the climax, and the sudden expose was made by the supernatural force at a base.
Shakespeare uses the pace of the scenes to create the sense of climax. We should notice that right before the climax in Act 5, the length of the scenes become shorter compare with those on Act 4. For instance, Act 4 scene 4 has 240 lines but in Act 5 scene 7 just have 28 lines. The changes in paces increase speed of the story. The speed turns faster and makes the reader attention grow higher, let them know the climax is coming.
Secondly, the increasing eruption of supernatural in the play distributes a lot in creating the sense of climax, the most important point was the fulfilling of the prophecies. In Act I scene 3; Macbeth met the 3 evil witches, who predicted that he will be the King of Scotland. We can see Macbeth thinks of murdering the king immediately by he said ‘This supernatural soliciting cannot be ill;…if good, why do I yield to that suggestion…’ Here the ‘suggestion’ means the possibility of murdering King Duncan in his mind. The reader was then carrying to thought about whether Macbeth can seize the crown later. Also, other two prophecies fulfill sooner or later. In Act II scene 1 (the dragger scene) Macbeth saw a bloody dragger in front of him and it seems to be calling him to commit the murder. Right after the murder in Act 2 scene 2, Macbeth heard a voice cried ‘Glamis hath murder sleep,…Macbeth shell sleep no more!’ which was actually made by his conscience.
