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Introduction

ENGLISH COURSEWORK MACBETH Appearance Vs Reality 'How does Shakespeare use the idea of deception in his play, Macbeth? Discuss the topic by referring to character, supernatural elements, places and objects not being what they seem William Shakespeare was a very famous playwright and actor who lived over 100 years ago and wrote the many plays including Macbeth. The play Macbeth is a tragedy, which was written in the sixteenth century by Shakespeare. In this play the main character, called Macbeth is a very brave and courageous man whose growing ambition and misfortune takes over his life and leads him to become very evil and threatening. In Macbeth, Shakespeare has used the idea of deception to develop his style of play writing and to make it more interesting to the audience. There are several ways in which he has done this, and I will be focussing on these to explain how he has done this and what kind of an affect it has on people. Throughout the play there is a tense atmosphere that builds on as it goes along and makes the audience more attracted to it. Shakespeare uses the idea of deception to create a lot of strange and superstitious effects in order to enhance the quality of the play and to make it more dramatic. For example, the play starts off with three witches also the setting is very eerie so the audience's attention is automatically grabbed and they want to carry on further to find out what will happen. Not only does he include witches, the play also consists of cauldrons, spells, ghosts and illusions. Even though it is unusual to see such things today it was very significant in that time period. Characters, acting, stagecraft and language are various ways that Shakespeare has used to exemplify the idea of deception in his play. There are different types of deception, such as, people who are not what they seem, supernatural deceptions and things/places not being what they seem. ...read more.

Middle

Shakespeare makes it deceiving to the other characters as well as the audience when he makes out that everybody sees Macbeth as a godlike figure who is respected by many. Conversely Macbeth is not at all like that and we can see how cruel and evil he becomes throughout the play. Shakespeare uses soliloquies in the beginning of act 1 scene 7 to represent how Macbeth is feeling, which is uncomfortable with this plan. It is not like him to do such evil acts so he is very worried about what will happen. '' If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly. If th' assassination could trammel up the consequence and catch with his surcease, success, that but this blow might be the be-all and the end-all-here...but only vaulting ambition which o'erlaps itself and falls on th' other-' from this long and interesting soliloquy we can tell that Macbeth is discussing how hard this task is and how his ambition is urging him to go on. It seems as though he has second thoughts which deceive the audience because we think that he will forget doing the murder from act 1 scene 7 where he mentions how respected and praised he is at the moment, ''We will proceed no further in this business. He hath honour'd me of late, and have bought golden opinions from all sorts of people, which will be worn now in the newest gloss, not cast aside so soon.'' Macbeth wants to enjoy the praises he has earned (''bought'') as though they were new clothes. Shakespeare uses metaphors here to describe the praises given to Macbeth and to make an impact on what he is saying. We, as in the audiences are deceived by this because it makes us think that he will back out but in the end he does not due to his weakness and he continues with the murder. ...read more.

Conclusion

Deception plays a major part in this play, and I think that it is trying to give the audience a message about deceiving and how things/people are not always what they seem to be. As I have explained in my essay Shakespeare has used language, imagery and stagecraft to illustrate the theme of deception and to show the audience how Shakespeare has made things seem different to what they really are in order to mislead the audience and characters. The language such has as "fair is foul, and foul is fair" (1.1) is just an example of how Shakespeare uses language to trick people. How can fair be foul and foul be fair? It is not something that you would normally come across therefore the play is very well known and liked by many. The deceptions are just ways in which to get people thinking and to prove that everything is not what it looks like on the outside, there may be things hidden away in the inside. For example, the character of Macbeth was not what he seemed like in the beginning of the play because his character has changed dramatically in the audience's eyes. He went from being a brave and courageous soldier to an evil and wicked ruler. I think his ambition has deceived him and he was overwhelmed at the thought of becoming king that he didn't think of the consequences. Overall I think Shakespeare has used the idea of deception very cleverly in the play, Macbeth to get the audience attention and to make it very appealing to the audience. He has done this by using characters, supernatural elements, places and objects, which are not what they seem. It is very similar to the saying, 'don't judge a book by its cover', because you don't know what's inside the story unless you read it. Similarly Shakespeare is giving the impression that characters, stagecraft, and many other things are not exactly what they seem. ?? ?? ?? ?? ...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Macbeth section.