Dramatic Tension in Act 2, Scene 2 of Macbeth Essay

Macbeth is a play that is written by William Shakespeare in 1606 and the main goal is to make the audience members or readers think that excessive ambition will have horrible consequences in the end. Macbeth receives prophecies from multiple people, his wife tries to make him something that he is not, by getting him to kill anyone that she wants him to. Over the course of the book the main character Macbeth drastically changes from being brave to being cowardly, he also changes from being loving to being greedy, and last he changes from being very trustworthy to being very untrustworthy.

going to go back on his word, he doesn't really love her, and he's a

The characters go through a number of changes in feeling through the scene; these changes will be looked at in detail in the main body of the essay. This scene takes place immediately after the murder of Duncan. Meanwhile Lady Macbeth is anxiously wondering whether Macbeth will really do the deed. When he returns, covered in blood and highly strung, she organises how to cover up the murder so that they won't be found out. In this scene we see certain emotions in the characters,

With attention to the murder of King Duncan, Macbeth struggles with the morality of his actions. Before the murder takes place, Macbeth begins to believe that the murder will “be the be-all and the end-all” to his clear conscious and would risk him to eternal damnation (Act I, line 5). Yet, the murder would bring him power over Scotland and he “shalt be kind” as told by the Weird Sisters(Act 1, line 50). Macbeth goes off of his ambition to murder King Duncan. The internal struggle of choosing mortality over motives brought forth an intense shift of loyalty to betrayal. The murder caused for Macbeth to turn on Scotland and only care for his own selfish motives. The betrayal causes for the play to become horrific and have a double meaning. Macbeth must put on a face to hide his murder to become the king. The double meaning is how Macbeth looks like a hero to all of Scotland, but only the people on the inside know of his horrific actions. He had to murder to to get the position of King, but the

In the play ‘Macbeth’ written by William Shakespeare a dramatic scene in the play is act 3 scene 4. In this scene Macbeth and lady Macbeth hold a banquet with the royalty of Scotland. Macbeth hears news of Banquo’s murder and Fleance’s escape and is approached by Banquo’s ghost causing confusion within the guest and fear in Macbeth. Through the use of Language, irony, stage direction and the contrast between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth Shakespeare is able to powerfully create dramatic scene.

Shakespeare employs a great deal of imagery to depict certain situations, for example he uses the image of blood many times. At this stage in the play Lady Macbeth is confident while Macbeth is subject to frightened loyalty. However, what Macbeth fears is evil of committing the evil deed rather than the evil deed itself. It is al this stage that one can first realise a chink of humanity in the originally confident and cold lady Macbeth. The murder has just been committed and Lady Macbeth relates to Macbeth how the assassinated Duncan appeared to her. “Ha he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done’t.” Suddenly through the hard exterior that Lady Macbeth possesses, she sees her father as the old man lying murdered on the

at this exact point as in the previous scene Macbeth is on his way to

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a tragedy in which the main characters are obsessed by the desire for power. Macbeth’s aspiration for power blinds him to the ethical implications of his dreadful acts. The more that Shakespeare’s Macbeth represses his murderous feelings, the more he is haunted by them. By analyzing his hallucinations it is possible to trace his deteriorating mental state and the trajectory of his ultimate fall. Throughout the play Macbeth is never satisfied with himself. He feels the need to keep committing crime in order to keep what he wants most: his kingship. The harder Macbeth tries to change his fate the more he tends to run into his fate. His ambition and struggle for power was Macbeth’s tragic flaw in the play.

As the main motivator to Macbeth’s actions, Lady Macbeth is a character whose ambition and greed lead her and her husband to their inevitable fate of death. Lady Macbeth’s relentlessness, as well as her longing for power, generate an emotion of endless pain and suffering

Macbeth middling character is shown in these lines “If it were done tis done…first I am his kinsman and his subject...who should shut the door on his murderer” (I.vii.1-15). This suggests that Macbeth doesn’t actually want to kill Duncan. However, due to his tragic flaw of his pride and ambition Macbeth resolves to kill Duncan. We seen that Lady Macbeth in Act I insulted him as a man, warrior and husband. It was after such insults that Macbeth then decides to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth is almost like the little devil portrayed on his shoulder whispering evil bad things in his ear. When Macbeth resolves to kill Duncan he sees a dagger floating in the air pointing towards Duncan’s chamber. Here he is presented a choice of whether not to follow through. “Is this a dagger which I see before me...A dagger of the mind a false creation,” (II.i.33.39). He also prays that the earth will not hear his footsteps as he completes his bloody plan. He doesn’t want anything including the earth to witness what he is about to do or is thinking of doing. “Thou sure and firm-set earth, Hear not my steps, which they walk, for fear” (II.i.57-58). Lady Macbeth rings the bell as a signal to let Macbeth know that the coast is clear for him to proceed with the evil deed. The bell symbolized both the final death of Duncan and Macbeth’s conscience a he chooses to actually follow through with the murder

When dealing with scene II act II from Macbeth, we can’t miss Shakespeare’s mastery in stagecraft. This story of crime and punishment culminates here in a climax of horror and terror, which exposes to the 17th century spectator the features of the two plotters of Duncan’s murder. Thus, the audience are invited to attend the inevitable and tragic downfall of these protagonists.

Macbeth was, shortly after the murdering incident, driven insane by the immense guilt produced by his withered conscience. The dagger that was used in the killing of King Duncan haunted him before the murder took place. This tragedy in the play gives us both fear of where the sword came from and pity for Macbeth's character that had degraded to such a point that he has become paranoid.

Macbeth and his wife seem convinced that under the cover of night, their abhorrent act of murder will be disguised. Killing the King while asleep it disloyal and represents hurting the innocent and vulnerable. After Lady Macbeth allied herself with the darkness and evil, Macbeth is his speech in Act 2, scene 2 refers to “The curtained sleep” which indicates being under cover. Also, eyelids cover the eyes like curtains to prevent from seeing anything at night. The next lines are as follows:

That night Macbeth ends up killing Duncan. Just before the murder Macbeth is walking down the hall when he has a vision of a dagger with a bloody tip, which is pointed for Duncan’s room. He thinks to himself, “Art tho not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation” (II.1.36-38). During the murder Macbeth makes a mistake that angers Lady Macbeth. He has forgotten to leave the daggers with Duncan’s guards, and she must now go and return them. Initially Macbeth is upset over the murder, but Lady Macbeth tells him it is as easy to forget about as washing the blood away with water. This first murder shows the strong character of Lady Macbeth and the influence she has over her husband.

Macbeth hallucinates the bloody dagger he will use to kill Duncan, right before he kills him. “Is this a dagger I see before me,/The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch/thee/… Thou marshall’st me the way I was going,/And such instrument I was to use” (2.1.34-44). Duncan’s murder is just one of many murders that will occur, which Macbeth commits to gain power. In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses murders to develop the theme of violence throughout the play.