This essay seeks to examine how Shakespeare captures the interest and imagination of his audience using a range of dramatic devices. Some of the devices will be examined in further detail throughout the course of this essay. These will include pathetic fallacy, soliloquys and the ‘super natural’.
Shakespeare’s play, “Macbeth”, is a gruesome play about greed, power, betrayal and murder most sinister! The plot follows a much twisted path full of back stabbing, complex relationships, assignations and eventually results in string of tragic and grizzly deaths.
Shakespeare uses several many examples of pathetic fallacy in his play, a clear example of this is when King Duncan’s death is discovered and Lenox describes the death using the following quote ‘some say the earth was feverous and did shake.’ This demonstrates how the world reacted to King Duncan’s death. Devices such as this add to the drama and therefore encourage the audience to engage more with the events in the play. Another example of pathetic fallacy that Shakespeare uses can be found in the scene after King Duncan’s death is discovered. “Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man’s act, threatens his bloody stage. By th’ clock ’tis day, and yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp. That darkness does the face of Earth entomb When living light should kiss it”. This pathetic fallacy is referring to the sinister depth of the act which has even affected the heavens and has caused a gloom to settle over the sky so that even though it is day and the sun should be visible it is overcast and dark.
Another device that Shakespeare uses to capture his audiences interest is a soliloquy. A soliloquy is when the actor thinks aloud when he is the only actor on stage. An example of Shakespeare’s use of soliloquy is when Macbeth says “Is this a dagger which I see before me the handle toward my hand come let me clutch’. This shows how a simple coincidence can influence people and also influence people in the audience to become excited and get involved with the play.
Other events occur during the course of the play which are key factors to help keep the audience engaged. Shakespeare’s use of the super natural is meant to keep the audience on edge as it evokes the feeling of not wanting to look at what happens but also being unable to look away at the same time. The use of super natural also heightens the senses of the audience and the audience are eager to know ‘what happens next’. “Double, double toil and trouble, Fire burn, and cauldron bubble”. The audience would automatically and unconsciously make a connection between a cauldron and super natural and dark and mysterious events taking place due to the association of witches and cauldrons. These tools are used to capture the readers/audience’s attention, draw them into the plot, appeal to their curiosity and keep them engaged and interested.
‘When durst you do it’ she says ‘then you were a man’. Before Lady Macbeth quotes this, Macbeth has revealed to his wife that no longer wishes to kill King Duncan anymore. Lady Macbeth reassures him by saying as long as they are ‘Bold’ it will be a success, she then follows on to tell him the plan and he agrees. This is an example of dramatic irony as the audience knows more than the rest of the characters themselves. The audience also knows who the offenders are when none of the other characters in the play have any knowledge of this. This keeps the audience on the edge of the seats in anticipation of when Macbeth and his wife will be discovered for their heinous act.
Deceit is one of the devices used to keep the audience interested. The following quote ‘There’s daggers in men’s smiles’ explains that even though someone may seem like your friend they are actually your enemy and intend to wrong you. This quote reflects the relationship between Macbeth and Duncan which lead to Duncan being murdered.
Complex stories are a good method employed by Shakespeare in many of his plays. He uses a complex story line in Macbeth to ensure that he captures and retains the absolute interest and concentration of his audience. The story line at first appears very haphazard and disorderly, however as events unravel, it grips the audience and leaves you with a feeling of wanting more, much like being unable to put down a good book. The Complex story line in Macbeth is successful in its purpose in that, during the intervals the audience begin to form ideas in their heads about the events that will take place next and when they actually see the next scene, they are further confused by the events which do actually take place.
Overall, anybody who reads the plays of Shakespeare will come to realise that these are the works of a brilliant mind. His outlook on life and the astute precision with which he understood human nature allowed him to create literature which cannot, in my opinion be replicated. In Macbeth, Shakespeare sought to illustrate to his audience the true destructive nature of man.
He successfully showed how mans desire for wealth, power, position and all worldly gain eventually result in his biggest failure or ultimately his demise.
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