The Reciprocities Of Macbeth And Hamlet

The Reciprocities of Macbeth and Hamlet Shakespeare is a famous English poet and playwright known for his dramatic works that share critical similarities between one another. In most of his tragic plays, a character begins the play in a high social class and ends in, sometimes even lower than, the minimal social hierarchy. This development of a character’s social class is usually due to an incentive that changes a decision of one or more characters. These encouragements all impact the audience’s perception of these plays in a multitude of ways. Shakespeare’s tragedies, Hamlet and Macbeth, resemble one another in many aspects such as foreshadowing, rational decision making, and the supernatural. Foreshadowing is a common literary technique
In Act I Scene II, Hamlet suggest that “all is not well,” setting the stage and allowing the audience to wonder what will occur (Shakespeare Hamlet 14). By knowing that something deficient is occurring in Denmark, this foreshadowing is easily connected to Hamlet’s unusual behavior toward Ophelia which in turn has a fatal outcome for the two lovers, as well as much more. Near the beginning of Hamlet, Horatio attempts to convince Hamlet to turn away from pursuing an action. When Horatio suggest this, Hamlet replies: “why, what should be the fear?” (Shakespeare Hamlet 21). This excerpt enhances the audience’s understanding of how Hamlet will act for the entirety of the play: only doing what he feels is right. Foreshadowing in both Hamlet and Macbeth influences the attentiveness and curiosity from the audience. Shakespeare also uses the choices of characters to induce the substandard outcome of
In Macbeth, the climax of the play is reached when Macbeth decides to kill Duncan. Due to committing this crime, Macbeth knows there is absolutely nothing he can do to revive himself besides to continue with his appalling behavior. Macbeth regrets his actions, but is soon scorned from Lady Macbeth for his “youthful and embarrassing behavior” (Jamieson). As Macbeth soon becomes insane, and even sees inanimate objects, Lady Macbeth grows angrily throughout the play due to how Macbeth killed Duncan and now how immature and regretful he is acting. As Lady Macbeth becomes weary, it is evident to the audience that she is also developing insanity. In Act IV Scene V, it is reported by other characters that “the queen, my lord, is dead!” (“Macbeth” The Complete). It is inferred that Lady Macbeth killed herself, yet it is not explicitly stated. Lady Macbeth’s choice to commit suicide is directly related to Macbeth’s choice to murder Duncan. Throughout plot development of Macbeth, it is evident that the choices characters make easily influence the result of other characters and the choices they