Essay on Macbeth

Document Type:Thesis

Subject Area:English

Document 1

• Conclude on how and why the play would have been different if it had been written in a different time, place, and language or for a different audience. Macbeth William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, was written in 1606. The play, which has been described as one of Shakespeare’s bloodiest tragedies, is set in Scotland. Macbeth’s plot is centred around a Scottish general, who upon receiving a prophecy from witches that he would become king of Scotland, gets consumed by ambition. The style of William Shakespeare is evident in this play. Had the text been written at a different time, the play would probably have been set in England just like the rest of Shakespeare’s plays. The thematic development would also be separate if the play were written in a different time because then the development of the play’s plot would have been influenced by other events which would not have necessarily involved power and ambition.

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From the above explanation, it is evident that a change in the time of the play’s writing would have elicited changes in thematic development. In developing any form of art, the needs of the audience and their interests always come first to the artist. Therefore, for every audience, the artist has to change his/her art to satisfy the audience’s needs. Shakespeare also played around with language in the play to develop the characters. Nobility would speak in blank verse while commoners would use regular prose. The witches also spoke in verse but in a way that set them apart from nobility. First in the use of language to develop character is the character Macbeth who is developed through the use of figurative word flow, and as Macbeth disintegrates psychologically, his metaphors become apostrophes.

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