macbeth

William Shakespeare and Wilfred Owen, two world renowned writers, are known especially for their unique styles of writing and storylines. Shakespeare and Owen are both very different, but also share some similarities. They both subvert expectations for playwrights/poets of their time in the content of their writings. Wilfred Owen is well known for his anti-war attitude that frames most of his well-known poems. This opinion in Owen’s time was an anomaly as few people questioned what the Queen and Government decided was the best thing for the country. In Shakespeare’s time, when anyone who queried the King risking punishment, Shakespeare’s Macbeth; a play about the King going mad and corruption of the throne, could lead to problems for the writer. (In fact when Shakespeare wrote plays his whole profession wasn’t respectable, with the theatre seen as low entertainment on the same level as bear baiting!) However, both of these writers have gained support in their writing over time. Their popularity is arguably higher now than it’s ever been, showing that time has clearly been kind to these two writers.
I will, through the course of this essay, be looking at and comparing different techniques used by the writers to portray disturbed characters. My definition of Disturbed is: showing signs of mental/ emotional illness or emotional instability of a character which is unusual for that particular character. In this I will be looking at Shakespeare’s Macbeth and a number of Owens anti-war poems.
Throughout Macbeth, as a reader of the play, you get the sense of violent thoughts. Shakespeare is trying to instil a sense of violence and conflict in almost every scene of the play. For example “Me thought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more Macbeth does murder sleep’” (Macbeth in Act 2 Scene 2). This quote is taken from after the murder of Duncan in his sleep and shows my point about violence in that something as innocent and peaceful as sleep can be put into such a