How Shakespeare dramatises Macbeths decision to commit regicide in the scenes preceding and immediately following Duncans murder.

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How Shakespeare dramatises Macbeth’s decision to commit regicide in the scenes preceding and immediately following Duncan’s murder.

The depths of the human mind are explored through Macbeth, the mental state of the protagonist fluctuates dramatically, and this is to provide a construct that symbolises greater truths about the human mind. He often has conflicting thoughts with which Shakespeare demonstrates his inner conflicts. As with many Shakespearian tragedies the central character has a fatal flaw, although Macbeth appears to have several. He is a man with a lot of desires but he lacks character to fully realise his ambitions. Macbeth may be irredeemably evil, but his human nature separates him from Shakespeare’s other villains such as Iago in Othello or Edmund in King Lear who all have the strength to overcome guilt and insecurity. Even though he seems courageous in the battlefield, mentally cannot deal with the mental anguish of sin. This lack of character breeds a ‘volatile cocktail’ of personas: Macbeth becomes violent, paranoid and insecure.

As the play opens we hear only of “Bellona’s bridegroom” from a kinsman, deifying Macbeth as the archetypal war hero. Bellona was the goddess of war so therefore Macbeth was so immensely great in the battle that the kinsman must deem fit to compare him to a god. This makes Macbeth seem enigmatic as the kinsman only vaguely describes him and we know relatively nothing about his nature, anything can be distinguished from it.

But this may not be that case we might also be hinted about his flaws in the same scene, since the protagonist is said to have “unseamed him from the knave to th’chaps” this may show his bloodthirstiness to come or being brutal enough to disembowel someone on a battlefield this may show some major psychological issues that Macbeth has, but while still keeping his disposition shrouded in secrecy.

This saying may have been used by Shakespeare to shock the audience and to show how gory that time was; a tone setter for much more to come in the play. This gory imagery also suited the Globe Theatre and its surroundings. Often people would attend executions, bear-baiting, cock-fighting and things like that. This kind of entertainment lauded at and was the only way people could get a good thrill at that time.

For a long time the general view of society was that people with ‘hermit like’ tendencies did things like this and were actually witches and ever since Europe was fully Christian they firmly forced their beliefs upon these people. Subsequently making them into scapegoats and executing those who practiced the arts of the occult. At this time the majority of people believed in evil spirits and were superstitious. So the appearance of the witches would have frightened audiences, this helped to set the tone for the play. Also because Macbeth decides, on his own accord to see the witches it may show his complete insanity and depravity. Also this shows his tendencies to go against common morals and his conscience with remarkable ease.

So the appearance of these witches in this play in conjunction with meeting Macbeth it is fairly obvious that to cause mayhem they would use him, whom had power and status in society, as a puppet the same as Lady Macbeth did.  This fictitious representation of what ‘witches’ were like (if they even existed) made up by society itself. Knowing this Shakespeare used this image to add to the effect of surrealism and transcendence in the way that darkness: in death, in our minds and in rituals were prevalent even in nobility. This, most of all, hooked the audience in suspense and all of this is symbolised in Macbeth.

Indeed, the protagonist tells the “imperfect speakers” to “stay” and “tell me more”. This shows how confused he is; even though he knows he will get no gain from knowing more because of the witches’ evasiveness he implores them for clarification. This may be because he enjoys being in control. Such a tendency, demonstrated on the battlefield, may show why Macbeth is the way he is, (this tells us that Macbeth takes many things from battle into his normal life and how much it has probably affected him).

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We know that he was frightened by the witches because Banquo asks him, “Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear things that sound so fair?” This suggests that while Banquo receives the harlots’ news with great assurance and composure, Macbeth frets and seems too anxious. Banquo is like Macbeth in the sense that after the first prophecy he has ambition, but unlike Macbeth he doesn’t put these into action.  He works as Macbeth’s dramatic foil, even though he and the central character are such great friends, he is the complete opposite to his ally. He has a ...

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