How does Shakespeare use act 1 scene 7 and act 2 scene 2, to create drama and tension and highlight the emotional states of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

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How does Shakespeare use act 1 scene 7 and act 2 scene 2, to create drama and tension and highlight the emotional states of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

Macbeth is one of many tragedy’s written by William Shakespeare. It was written  around the time of 1604. The play is set in 1057 and is about a regicide of a king and its aftermath. Macbeth is Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy and characters in his play are based on real people.

One of the reasons for Shakespeare writing this play is that because of its Scottish theme, that the play perhaps was written for and debuted to King James. One of the reasons that the witches are, perhaps, the main characters in the play and that they have such a big influence on to the characters is because, during Shakespeare’s time, witches were seen not just as rebels but much worse. Not only were they political traitors but, spiritual traitors aswell. Witches were also seen as worshipers of the Devil, bringing and portraying evil on to their unsuspecting victims.

The play begins with the brief appearance of a trio of witches, it then goes to the end of a long and tiring battle, where King Duncan’s men are victorious. Two of the Kings generals, Macbeth and Banquo, then go onto to encounter the three mysterious witches on the top of a bleak Scottish moorland. The witches give the two men prophecies in which Macbeth decides to listen to the witches and complete his prophecy, whereas, Banquo chooses to ignore his. Macbeth tells hiswife Lady Macbeth about his prophecy and she then vows to help him complete the prophecy (becoming king) by any means possible. By this, they plot to murder the present king, Duncan. As Duncan sleeps, Macbeth stabs him, despite his doubts. Once the deed is done, Lady Macbeth plants the daggers by Duncans guards as to look like they have committed the crime.

The key scenes (between act1 scene 7 and act2 scene 2) are the ones which signify the change in which happens to Macbeth during the play. For instance;

‘prithee, peace. I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none.’

Here Macbeth is demanding to lady macbeth to keep her mouth shut. He wants her to stop being so persistent about the plan, because she is making the situation worse for herself, by aggravating Macbeth so much, she is actually putting him off committing the crime. But, she realises that she is being too persuasive towards Macbeth and by doing this is making him angry. Therefore, this brings on a urge of anger from Macbeth which caused him to say that to her, and because he is answering back to her shows his defiance, lady Macbeth cannot have that, so she becomes even more domineering which then causes Macbeth to become belittled by her. So, to please her, Macbeth reconsiders the plan, but he then thinks about the consequences by saying;

‘If we should fail?’

This shows his cowardice towards the situation, this distresses lady Macbeth so, she comes back to Macbeth by asking him the question of;

‘We fail?’

This shows that she will never consider failure. By using a question mark this shows that instead of answering Macbeths question, which seems completely senseless to her, she turns her answer into a rhetorical question in which Macbeth cannot answer because she’s made him see the absurdity of his question.

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Some themes that resonate in the play include, greed and power, trust and betrayal and desperation. Trust and betrayal happen in the play near the start, where King Duncan puts his trust in Macbeth by making him thane of cawdor and then Macbeth purposely betrays him by literally ‘backstabbing’ him through by power-hungry and wanted more than just thane of cawdor.

Greed and power happen when Macbeth and lady Macbeth want more power than that of the royal family. Greed for power has also completely engulfed their minds. They cannot except anything less than complete power over Scotland. It has ...

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