In Shakespearean England the atmosphere of distrust and suspicion was a powerful breeding ground for persecution and witch-hunts were common. People them days were induced to relate witches as rebels against God and the divine order. So starting the play with this dramatic scene is setting out to grip the audience’s attention from the very start of the play.
The Shakespearean audience would therefore be immediately aware at the very start of the play that this drama concerns evil and foul deeds. The mention of Macbeth by the witches would also tell the audience that he is part of their evil plans!
In Act1, Scene 3 when the witches next appear the stage directions are almost identical: “Thunder. Enter the three witches.” Here the witches begin to boast about the evil deeds each of them has done since they last met. This reminds the audience that their role in the drama will be evil and against the natural order.
They start to Hail Macbeth as Thane Of Glamis, a title which he holds at the moment, but then they go on to hail him as Thane of Cawdor and, most important, “all hail Macbeth, that shalt be king here after.”
But when Macbeth recovers from the shock he experiences, he tries to question them about their predictions they disappear – “Stay you imperfect speakers. Tell me more.”
Thus an atmosphere is evil is created by Shakespeare from the start of the play which suggests to the audience that his main character ‘Macbeth’ would in some way be caught up by this because of his main weakness, his ambition.
In Act 1, Scene 5 the sense of evil that has been reflected by the three witches is reflected by Lady Macbeth’s response to the letter which her husband sends her telling her about the meeting of these three witches and their predictions. Not only that but he informs her that already one has been fulfilled as he is now Thane Of Cawdor appointed by Duncan in place of a traitor who tried to betray the king.
Lady Macbeth recognises Macbeth’s weakness: his nature “is too full o’th’ milk of human kindness”.
With the news of Duncan’s visit to her castle, she see’s the opportunity to fulfil the Witches’ last prediction and to make her husband, Macbeth, King. She begins a spell that links her indirectly to the witches: “Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe top full of direst cruelty.”
Every image is now dark and foul as she has just called for the evil spirits to give her the strength of a man to help in the murder of Duncan so that her husband Macbeth may be declared King; “Come to my woman’s breasts and take my milk for gall, you murdring ministers”
In calling for the evil spirits Lady Macbeth shows us that she knows the murder of Duncan would be unnatural, evil and against the natural order.
The most important part in Shakespeare making his audience feel that the murder of King Duncan is an evil act and against the natural order is the way he sets the scene and describes the environment as being ‘dead and full of evil’ after the murder is carried out. For example, Lennox comments to Macbeth about the stormy weather during the night of Duncan’s murder – “Our chimneys were blown down” and “Lamenting heard I’th’ air, strange screams of death” as if God himself and nature are acting against the evil of Duncan’s murder.
According to Ross everything is upside down from what it should be: “By th’ clock tis day and yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp.” He’s trying to say here that the powers of darkness have overpowered day, or whether the sun won’t shine its light upon the earth where an evil act of all evil has just been committed.
Duncan’s horses, according to Ross, “Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls”
In conclusion I believe that William Shakespeare the writer of this dramatic play succeeds to making us the audience think that the murder of Duncan is evil and against the natural order by his use of language and dramatic devices.
GCSE English Coursework Macbeth – William Shakespeare Paulo Ross B12
