Macbeth is a tragedy written by the renowned writer William Shakespeare. It’s believed that the first performance of Macbeth happened in the year 1606. Macbeth is a demonstration of the damaging psychological and physical effects that political aspirations do on those who want power for the simple reason of just wanting to be dominant. Out of all the other written works of Shakespeare that were published within the period when James I was in power, Macbeth brings to light the relationship that existed between the sovereign and the playwright. James, I was the acting patron of the company in which Shakespeare used to act.
Macbeth is the shortest tragedy to be eve written by Shakespeare and was published for the first time in 1623. It is believed that Macbeth came from a prompt book. In the tragedy, Macbeth who is a strong Scottish general gets a prophecy from three witches that he was going to become a king in Scotland. Macbeth becomes consumed by the vision, and his wife advises him to take action.
Macbeth decides to take the throne by force and murders King Duncan. Following that murder, Macbeth kills more people to hide the information that could leak and taint his reputation with time, guilt and concern attack Macbeth and his wife for committing several murders. They are incredibly tortured psychologically until his wife dies.
In this play, Shakespeare uses both biblical and mythological allusions. An example of this is when the sergeant makes a comparison of the bloody scene in the battlefield near Golgotha which is also the same place where Jesus in the Bible dies. Macbeth being a tragedy has a tone which is mainly depressing, elegiac and dark. In Act III, Shakespeare wrote that blood could only be fixed by blood. Again, in scene IV, there is a foreshadowing of murders occurring in a series one after another. Such events will undoubtedly spur feelings of fear and bleak on the readers of the play.
A picture can be used to say a thousand words. Shakespeare uses imagery to show a more in-depth look at how Macbeth the character looks like. Imaging is vital in any literary work so that the author can manipulate the feelings of those who read it towards a particular character. Throughout Macbeth, imagery is widely used, but it can be seen to be more useful in blood, clothing, darkness and light imagery. Through such images, Shakespeare can develop the character of Macbeth in the play.
For example, Macbeth’s clothing shows his ambitions and the effects of his aspirations. Shakespeare also uses figurative language such as similes, symbols, alliteration, personification and metaphors in the play to give it a taste of language mastery.
For example, when he says that his love resembles a red rose. Here he compares a person to a rose flower in a way which creates an impression that both have some standard features. There are many active themes that could be derived from the play Macbeth. However, some like objective reality versus psychological reality and the close examination of states of the mind affected by moral thinking and stress might be fascinating.