Macbeth

The murder of King Duncan is possibly the most important event that takes place in the play. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are the only two people involved in the murder of King Duncan and are therefore put themselves under great emotional stress both in the build up to the murder and the time following it. To gain a clear picture of mental position that the two were in before and after the murder of King Duncan it is important that the focus remains on the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

A significant feature of the play is the way in which it uses dramatic effects to provoke the audience to think about the situation in the play and to intrigue the audience. At the very start of Act two scene 2 Fleance enters with a torch because it is dark, in the context of what is about to happen (treason/the murder of King Duncan), darkness is appropriate as it symbolizes evil. If the stage is dark, the entire theatre is dark and this makes the audience aware of the fact that there is an air of evil looming. In the RSC television production of Macbeth th

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This guilt comes as a surprise as Macbeth is a great warrior and has killed countless times in battle and had no feelings of guilt or remorse saying that he wanted to “jump the life to come” meaning that he had no fear of a divine punishment for his actions. It is noticeable that “bell” and “hell” are used as rhyming couplets. In the RSC production the character of Lady Macbeth both looks and acts an extremely severe character. The idea of damnation links in with the idea of the supernatural which is one of the repeated themes of the play. e lighting is so dark that the bodies of the characters were only just visible as silhouettes with the set being very dark and bare giving the production a theatrical feel. The theme of evil also ties in here because the evil thoughts of Lady Macbeth spread to her husband and turn into actions like the murder.

There is repeated use of language referring to the supernatural during the play, the supernatural seems to be something that was important at the time in which Macbeth was set, the theme of the supernatural may make the play more appealing to audiences that enjoy something a little out of the ordinary. Macbeth thinks about the implications of murdering Duncan whilst he was sleeping defencelessly and how this will play on his conscience, preventing him from sleeping, “Macbeth does murder sleep’-the innocent sleep……Macbeth shall sleep no more. In the Polanski film King Duncan actually wakes up just as he is about to be murdered, this means that he knows who has betrayed him and this also makes the murder even more personal for Macbeth. This contrasts to the RSC production of Macbeth in which there is no dagger visible and the dagger simply stays as a figment of Macbeth’s imagination. The visions that Macbeth has of the Duncan’s ghost and the dagger in Act Two, scene 1 also have a supernatural element to them. Lady Macbeth also plays down the consequences of the murder by her dispassionate use of language concerning the blood on their hands “a little water clears us of this deed.

The dramatic devices that are used in the productions of Macbeth are of great significance because they are open to interpretation, the different dramatic devices used also tell us something about what effect the people who produced the play/film are trying to achieve by using certain dramatic devices. In terms of showing us the state of mind before the murder the RSC version that doesn’t show the dagger tells the audience that Macbeth is going mad because the vision while seemingly real to Macbeth himself is not visible to the audience.

Common topics in this essay:
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Approximate Word count = 2747
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)

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