Mystery In Macbeth Essay
Mystery, Tension, and Surprise
Many people have read Macbeth, the classic tragedy by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare uses many different structural choices in this tragedy. By doing this he creates the elements of mystery, tension, and surprise to draw the audience into the story.
The first of these structural choices is starting the play with the witches. It causes a great amount of mystery because most people had gone to watch a play about the king of Scotland. This causes people to wonder why the play is about the king if it starts with three witches. Also, because the audience isn’t going to decipher what every line means in the play, lines such as “Fair is foul, and foul is fair; Hover through the fog and filthy air” (Macbeth 1.1 12-13) become slightly mysterious to them.
Another structural choice used by Shakespeare is making the witches’ prophecies vague. “By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis. But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives A …show more content…
In 1.2, the king asks “Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought ’Gainst my captivity” (Macbeth 1.2 5-6). Answering the king’s question, the captain says “brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name)...unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops, And fix'd his head upon our battlements” (Macbeth 1.2 18-25). This line gives us the impression that Macbeth is a violent but brave and valiant man. So when Macbeth believes the weird ramblings of the witches, the audience is taken by surprise. Adding onto this surprise, in 1.7, Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that Duncan is his king and he can not kill him as she wished him to in 1.6. Later contradicting himself, Macbeth does kill Duncan. And just when Macbeth starts to feel guilt for killing the king, he kills the guards who witnessed the
Many people have read Macbeth, the classic tragedy by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare uses many different structural choices in this tragedy. By doing this he creates the elements of mystery, tension, and surprise to draw the audience into the story.
The first of these structural choices is starting the play with the witches. It causes a great amount of mystery because most people had gone to watch a play about the king of Scotland. This causes people to wonder why the play is about the king if it starts with three witches. Also, because the audience isn’t going to decipher what every line means in the play, lines such as “Fair is foul, and foul is fair; Hover through the fog and filthy air” (Macbeth 1.1 12-13) become slightly mysterious to them.
Another structural choice used by Shakespeare is making the witches’ prophecies vague. “By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis. But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives A …show more content…
In 1.2, the king asks “Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought ’Gainst my captivity” (Macbeth 1.2 5-6). Answering the king’s question, the captain says “brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name)...unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops, And fix'd his head upon our battlements” (Macbeth 1.2 18-25). This line gives us the impression that Macbeth is a violent but brave and valiant man. So when Macbeth believes the weird ramblings of the witches, the audience is taken by surprise. Adding onto this surprise, in 1.7, Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that Duncan is his king and he can not kill him as she wished him to in 1.6. Later contradicting himself, Macbeth does kill Duncan. And just when Macbeth starts to feel guilt for killing the king, he kills the guards who witnessed the