The second comparison is blatant where it writes, “She also gave to her husband with her and he ate the fruit”. Again we see in “Macbeth” Shakespeare almost literally quotes the bible when he portrays Lady Macbeth's enticing side as she coaxes Macbeth into killing the king. But Shakespeare does dramatize it, by making Macbeth hallucinate in seeing the dagger which "leads" him to Duncan's chamber.
There is a third overall comparison on the outcome of the decision that both couples make. Adam and Eve eat the fruit and are therefore banished from the Garden of Eden and hence the fall of them and mankind. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth commit the sin and they both die. This point links in with challenging the natural/divine order.
When Lady Macbeth and Macbeth challenge the natural order they die. Shakespeare is showing that anyone who dares defy God’s chosen king, no good would befall them.
We can see a furthermore representation of the manipulative skills in Lady Macbeth’s possession when Macbeth faces the dilemma regarding his wife and the king.
Firstly, Macbeth does not have clear ambition or motive to kill King Duncan until Lady Macbeth suggests that he should in Act 1, Scene 5, “O never shall sun that morrow see”. Lady Macbeth makes her intention clear that the shine will not shine for Duncan. When Macbeth first meets the witches and believes their predictions he replies: "So foul and fair" It implies that Macbeth denies and rejects the witches' prophecy in the beginning. When he listens to their predictions, it brings Macbeth into a dilemma, whether to slay the King or not. This dilemma is quickly resolved by the constant pressurizing of Lady Macbeth. She says that he is not a man and is too much of a coward to see it through. This gives Macbeth enough of reasons to kill Duncan, not only will he then become king but also he has a chance to prove his bravery. By the way Shakespeare portrays Lady Macbeth the reader sees her as an "Eve", temping "Adam" with the forbidden fruit, in this case treason. This could be the way society saw women: weak and almost venomous, not capable of doing the job on their own.
We get a further portrayal of weakness of the female sex and dramatic elements in the scene which Lady Macbeth gets the blood of one of her victims on her hands and is "unable" to wash it off, “Heres the smell of blood still; All the perfumes of Arabia . Therefore showing Lady Macbeth as someone who is able to convince her already doubtful husband into something he does not feel comfortable doing and it is she that finally finds it too much to bear. Another way that Lady Macbeth is portrayed is just another pawn in a large game of chess. W e can see this as soon as Macbeth reaches his goal; becoming king, he has no more use of Lady Macbeth and realizes all things and crimes he has committed so he stops listening to her- Shakespeare here is bringing out the superiority of males (which was thought to be the case in his time) for the first time as before this point Macbeth was always following his wife's orders and being subservient to her. This in a way is the final straw for Lady Macbeth and she commits suicide-weakness of females being represented by Lady Macbeth, again.
A major theme in the play is kingship, distinguishing a bad king from a good one.
Shakespeare develops on the idea that kingship is not always good as at the beginning of the play Macbeth is described as "brave" and "valiant" . However as greed and his wife overpower him, his reputation declines and at the end of the lay he is spoken of as a "tyrant" and "butcher".
Duncan is not a very good king. This is represented in act 1 scene 7 when Macbeth says “Hath borne his faculties so meek”. Here Macbeth is saying that Duncan exercised his powers so humbly as king. This is not a good quality in a king, because as the ruler of a country you should be able to use power effectively which is advantageous to your nation
In spite that the majority of play is political "Macbeth" can be a dramatic play as it involves lots of supernatural events, hallucinations/imagery. It uses lots of indirect and direct references to evil, i.e. witches being direct and Lady Macbeth being the indirect reference. The dramatic elements help to get Shakespeare's points across well.
Firstly, the scenes that involve the witches are one of the main dramatic parts in the play. Witches in Shakespeare's era were always considered to be supernatural, frightening in fact. But without dramatic backgrounds like lighting and thunder the effect that they would be trying to portray would be lost. The scenes with the witches and murderers have one thing in common, they are set in darkness, night time, midnight; the witching hour. This contributes to the general theme of these scenes, which is portraying it as demonically as possible; Darkness is the opposite of light, which is associated with God. So darkness was the Devil.
Secondly, when Macbeth sees a "dagger" before his eyes which is really only a hallucination, Shakespeare puts across the point that evil is so strong that it affects your mind and forces you to do evil things you wouldn’t do in you r normal state. The dagger leads him to Duncan's chamber where he pulls out his really dagger and kills him. Furthermore, the scene of the banquet where Banquo's ghost appears is very beneficial to the reader as it shows the guilt that Macbeth feels in murdering his friend; this shows us that another use for dramatic scenes to get a jist of what the character feels and what his going through his mind.
However, it is not only the supernatural events that make the play dramatic it is many things including Shakespeare's use of juxtaposition; the porter's scene which follows Duncan's murder. This creates comedy side to a play where tragedy is the genre because the porter's scene is rather comic and happens straight after the murder of Duncan which is a pivotal point in the play.
Shakespeare's use of blood is also very useful in contributing to dramatic side of the play. The blood that is shown at different points of the play i.e. imaginary dagger, blood on face of murderers, blood on Lady Macbeth's hands and Captain e.t.c. As well as contributing to the dramatic side of "Macbeth". It also contributes to a much dark and sinister side.
In conclusion "Macbeth" is a political tragedy with dramatic aspects to it. As it was a tragedy, like most of Shakespeare's plays audiences would have had certain expectations, it would be sad and have lots of negative connotation, death, and betrayal, and also it would have been written to instruct people as well as to entertain them. Overall Shakespeare supported the status quo by agreeing with the fact that a king was always appointed by God and those who challenged the natural order will be punished. This is evident as the main plot is that, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth challenge the natural order and they die.
