In the second scene Macbeth and Banquo return from the battle that they had won for Scotland, which is when we see Macbeth given the title the “Thane of Cawdor” from the king as a reward.
This scene is trying to show that Macbeth is a valiant soldier for the king, by killing many people and winning the battle for the king. The language used is not to scare but just to capture the attention of the audience by describing with exciting language. This shows that if this were the beginning then there would be more to follow. As we are told that Macbeth is going to become “Thane of Cawdor”, this creates tension because it is dramatic irony.
Act three takes us back to the witches who describe to us some horrific things they have done. They are on a lonely moor waiting for Macbeth and Banquo to tell them their prophecies. They tell him he will be the “Thane of Cawdor” and that even greater things will come of it. Banquo is not too bothered by this and does not believe this much, when Macbeth is amazed by this and thinks harder on the subject. The witches make Macbeth believe that they are doing it with their magical powers but we know he was going to be given the title anyway because of his bravery in battle.
When Macbeth is finally told of his new position, he now believes that the witches’ prophecies are true and is surprised, unlike the audience who can laugh at this. Because Macbeth believes this first prediction, he then thinks that others could be true also and then dwells over it. He conveys his thoughts over a soliloquy towards the audience and talks about regicide. This would create tension for the audience because anyone that even contemplated regicide would be deemed as a sinner. This is because the king was thought as chosen by God, and so was holy, and bad things would happen to those who touch the king.
The play was written for king James I who was interested in witchcraft and had written a book called “Demonology”. This play helps capture his attention and probably the audience too because of the king’s influence to get them interested in witchcraft. In this scenes the witches have created fear for the audience. Even though the prophecies were good news, the audience know that whatever they predict would have evil in it, and so would not bring any happiness, creating tension.
In scene four Macbeth openly compliments the king although he is contemplating regicide, which makes the audience feel worried about Macbeth becoming evil. When Macbeth hears that Duncan is giving up his throne he is overjoyed that he will not have to kill the king. But Duncan names his son the successor of the throne and from this Macbeth gets angry and describes in a small soliloquy that Malcolm will just be another obstacle for the throne. This is dramatic irony and creates tension between the audience and Macbeth.
Even though we know Macbeth is having these evil thoughts, he shows that he is still scared about what he is thinking and does not want to go through with it.
Scene five is when we meet Lady Macbeth, his wife. We see that they are very close, because in a letter Macbeth describes to his wife about the thoughts of regicide, and if they were not close he would not have said this. From this letter we see for definite that he believes the predictions. Lady Macbeth is very understanding and is willing to do all that she can to help him all the way. So she does by calling on evil spirits to help her. She says that she is willing to give up her gentle motherly qualities to become pitiless for Macbeth. Her monologue contains a lot of violent and evil imagery that would have the audience scared of her now because she is calling on evil spirits.
They then invite Duncan to their castle the next night and Lady Macbeth asks Macbeth to leave it all up to her.
In the next scene we see that Lady Macbeth is being a faithful housewife and puts on a front to invite Duncan into their home. The audience still know that she is now helping plot the murder with Macbeth.
In scene seven we see that Macbeth is becoming worried about the moral aspect of the murder, and how that it has become real life instead of a prophecy now. He describes that he is not worried about what will happen in his afterlife because of this, but what will happen if he was caught in his earthly life and what would happen to him then.
All of this builds up to Macbeth having a big worry about failure and trying to think of motives for killing the king. And he then realises that his thoughts have been taken too far.
So it can be seen that Shakespeare was successful in creating a play that captured the imagination and attention of his audience.
