How does Shakespeare create a sense of unease in Act 1 of Macbeth?

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                                                                                                                       Ayesha Begum

How does Shakespeare create a sense of unease in Act 1 of Macbeth?

The play Macbeth is about a soldier, who is very loyal to his king and fights every battle fearlessly but there are these three witches who tell Macbeth that he is soon going to be king. He tells his wife, who is a woman that is greedy for power and so persuades her husband to kill the king. Not only does Macbeth kill the king but he also kills his best friend Banquo after becoming king, so that Banquo doesn’t tell anyone about the witches, he also kills Macduff’s family, Macduff then wants revenge from Macbeth, so they have a battle and Macduff kills Macbeth.

Shakespeare uses superstition to create an uncomfortable atmosphere in Act 1. Superstition is believing in good luck or bad luck and that if you don’t do a certain thing then it will be bad luck or good luck. The witches are an example of superstition. In Elizabethan times, people were afraid of witches because the used to believe that witches could do bad magic, could kill people, could predict the future and turn invisible, so if people saw them on the stage of Macbeth in the beginning they would’ve been really frightened. The fact that they were very superstitious would make them feel very uncomfortable.

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The language in act 1 scene 1 makes me feel uneasy an example of this is when the witches say “there to meet with Macbeth”. It makes me feel uncomfortable because it makes me think that the witches want to do something or say something to Macbeth it also makes me think that they will say/do something bad to Macbeth but I want to think/feel good things about Macbeth because he’s the main character and I don’t want the witches to turn him bad. This is how the language makes me feel tensed.

Act 1 Scene 1 makes ...

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