How Does Shakespeare Use Diction In Macbeth

Macbeth is in fact more than a just a dagger in Lady Macbeths hand. In the beginning, Lady Macbeth does influence and plant the idea of murder into Macbeth’s head. She taunts him and plays on his manhood which forces him to commit the evil crime of murder to achieve his ambition to be king. However, as time progresses, Lady Macbeth begins to feel ashamed of the crime she had helped commit and Macbeth continues to commit the crimes by himself without shame and without telling his wife, Lady Macbeth. Though Lady Macbeth may have planted the idea of murder into Macbeth’s head, Lady Macbeth has intended to do no more harm and murder than what Macbeth had turned out to commit. In saying this, it was actually Macbeth who had set out his own plans of murder in the end and Lady Macbeth had nothing

In Act two scene one Macbeth has an encounter with a ghost in the form of a dagger and he begins to hallucinate about killing King Duncan. Once the hallucination is over Macbeth accepts his and King Duncan’s fate. Shakespeare uses diction and imagery to convey Macbeth’s remorseful and fearful state of mind in Macbeth’s Soliloquy Act two scene one. Shakespeare uses harsh words such as “dagger” and “oppressed” to express Macbeth’s remorseful state of mind.

This passage found in the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare conveys the idea of a person's internal conflicts with the supernatural world and themselves. Through the use of poetic elements such as personification and syntax, the theme of the passage is successfully conveyed. The personification found on line 159 says, “my seated heart knock at my ribs.” Although this quote may seem quite complex it simply means that his heart was heavily beating inside his chest. The use of syntax is just as prevalent throughout the passage and is best seen through this quote, “shakes so my single state of man”(I.iii.153). Moreover, this type of syntax is used as an example of sentence inversion which is when the author flips a sentence in normal sentence

Macbeth dismisses his vision of the dagger with the statement, “there’s not such thing”. The fact that Macbeth knows the dagger is not real shows he is still sane at this point. He is, however, beginning to ignore signs that his actions are morally defective. Macbeth begins to deny the effect murdering Duncan will have on his conscience. He refuses to use the word “murder”, instead using the euphemism of “the bloody business”. He is not facing up to what he is about to do. Shakespeare then has Macbeth begin to personify murder. The statement “wither’d murder… towards his design moves like a ghost” also distances Macbeth from his actions. It is murder instead of Macbeth that is striding down the hall to kill the King. This is very different from Macbeth’s earlier soliloquy, where he carefully ways up both sides of the argument. The audience can already see the effect his actions are having on the way he is

In the dagger speech (II, 1, 33-64) William Shakespeare conveys the message that Macbeth’s ambition overrides his morals to accomplish what he wants and what he thinks will give him happiness. In lines 33-41 of the dagger speech it portrays the message that Macbeth’s guilt is tearing him apart from the thought of what he is going to do. Shakespeare uses apostrophe of the dagger to convey the message. In the speech Macbeth addresses the dagger as if it was a person. This allows the audience to see the moral conflict of inside of Macbeth. Showing that he knows what he wants to do is wrong causing him to see what is not actually there. Shakespeare also uses rhetorical questions such as “The handle toward my

Diction and imagery play large roles in Macbeth. Shakespeare's use of these devices create a better image in the mind of the audience and set the stage for foreshadowing. In the scene before Duncan's murder in Macbeth, Shakespeare uses diction and imagery to establish Macbeth's guilty, anxious frame of mind. Shakespeare uses imagery as soon as the passage begins by writing, "Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand," (II.i.1-2).

“My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man,” this alliteration is used by Macbeth as he considers killing King Duncan, and it lets the audience know of Macbeth’s fear towards the murder. Macbeth questions his sense of self and loyalty while making his decision. Lady Macbeth does not agree with Macbeth’s refusal to kill King Duncan and influences his choice by questioning his manhood with the use of a rhetorical question, “Art thou afead to be the same in thine own act and valour as thou art in desire?” This gives the audience knowledge of Lady Macbeth’s attitude towards the murder and gets the audience thinking about why Macbeth chose not to kill the King. Once hearing this question from Lady Macbeth, Macbeth rethinks his decision and ambition finally drives Macbeth into killing King Duncan. The metaphor, “to prick the sides of my intent but only vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other,” shows that Macbeth is driven by ambition and that he makes his decisions to benefit his power. The inner conflict experienced by Macbeth when making the decision to kill King Duncan changed his sense of self and his loyalty towards King

Throughout history, writers have developed a plethora of literary devices.  This allows them to essentially spice up their writing, or make it more interesting to the reader.  One of the most commonly used and talked about literary devices is theme; theme is a specific idea or lesson that an author is trying to get across.  Just a few examples are, ambition, guilt, things may not always be what they seem, or even nature verses the unnatural.  In fact, these are common themes used by one of the greatest play writes of all time, Shakespeare.  All throughout arguably his most renowned play, Macbeth, we see Shakespeare use each of the four previously listed themes.

This essay is over the character Macbeth from the story Macbeth. Macbeth is a strong character who is loved by everyone is his kingdom. In the story he is the greatest knight who has ever lived and no one can beat him. People come and give him gifts just for being so great. Macbeth plays the most important role in this tory because its the story of a time in his life and his demise. Its the story of how he almost became the most successful knight ever to live by owning two kingdoms but becaseu of one crazy chick, all that gets ruined. All together Macbeth was a wonderful person and strong knight, but because of foolishness, love, and being whipped he lost it all. In the story of macbeth there are more than one morals or lesosns that can be

Shakespeare is one of the most influential and famous playwrights of modern times. A major reason his work is loved by so many is because of his insightfulness into the human mind, and one of Shakespeare’s greatest works demonstrating this is Macbeth. This famous play is about nobleman and military man Macbeth and how his tragic choices lead to his inevitable demise. The first and most trying choice that Macbeth has to make is whether or not to kill Duncan, the king of Scotland. Macbeth has to make this decision while being pulled in different directions by two conflicting forces. The force pulling him away from murder is his loyalty and humanity towards Duncan. The other force pulling him towards murder is his loyalty towards Lady Macbeth

Shakespeare uses soliloquies to show the change of Macbeth. The first monologue of Macbeth in Act 1 scene 7 is used as a point in the play where the plot thickens, when he is doubting his own plans. In the beginning he shows doubts, stating that “ He’s (the king) here is double trust him”(1.7.13) and that Duncan was “so clear in his great office”(1.7.13). This monologue shows how Macbeth does not want to kill Duncan, because he sees the negative consequences such as that “the tear shall drown the wind”(1.7.25) and he “has no spur to prick the sides of my intent”(1.7.26), which means he does not want any trouble. This monologue overall shows how Macbeth is very ambivalent about the murder of king Duncan, but all this changes in the second monologue in act 2 scene 1 line 33-62. As he talks, it is apparent that he is slowly being taken over by ambition and madness, as he “sees a dagger before him” (2.1.32) and he also sees”dudgeon gouts of blood” “on thy blade” (2.1.47 ). At act 5 scene 5, it is apparent that Macbeth is fearless and has gone mad because of ambition because he says that he’s “forgotten what fear feels like”. This shows that Macbeth is a changed man as he has no fear anymore. The monologues throughout the story shows the mind of Macbeth the power of ambition changing Macbeth from a loyal soldier to a ruthless

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.

Although Duncan is out of the way now, Macbeth finds out that Banquo’s sons are the next in line to become King. With this realization, he says, “To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings!/Rather than so, come fate into the list,/And champion me to th' utterance.” (3.1.75-77). Now that Lady Macbeth has convinced Macbeth that he is destined to be King, his statement shows how he is going to do everything in his power to make it happen. He feels that he has to prove to himself and to others that he is not womanly, and is capable of performing ‘manly’ tasks. In order to prove this to himself, he says, “There’s comfort yet; they are assailable./Then be thou jocund.” (3.2.44-45). Here Macbeth is saying that he finds comfort in knowing that he can simply kill Banquo’s sons so he can become king. This further represents his transition to becoming in full control over the events that take place in the play. This is because he is planning to commit a tragedy, in this case, a murder, in order to fulfill his desires. Lady Macbeth persuaded him in the beginning, but now it is completely his own doing. By saying he feels comfortable with murder, which contradicts his belief from the beginning, it may be noticed how this is a clue that he will hold responsibility for more tragedies in the near

In the play, Macbeth, Shakespeare uses indirect characterization to compare Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s personalities to convey that one’s actions do not define a person’s identity. In closer view of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, after Macbeth had assassinated King Duncan, he immediately felt guilty for his actions, “ Lisnt’ning their fear. I could not say ‘Amen’/When they did say ‘God bless us”’(2.2.39-40). Macbeth’s sorrowful state of mind after committing treachery portrays him as a man with a frail mind, who cannot stay strong through the actions that he commits. Macbeth can also be described as a cold-blooded man, whose greed for power led him to backstab his own king and kin. However, his actions provide a skewed perception of his true character.

Without literary techniques most literature would be colorless. Therefore these techniques are very crucial in producing successful writing. Not only do they create interest, they also help in development of characters, this is especially depicted in the Shakespearean play, Macbeth. The characters developed from the different literary techniques such as irony, paradox, and imagery assist in conveying the many themes throughout the play.