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than 'vaulting ambition'. Shakespeare allows the audience to share the growing sense of mounting suspicion and suspense as we observe them interacting with Banquo, with each other and as they deliver their soliloquies. [If it is a staging/director's notes essay, start the next paragraph with "In my adaptation of "Macbeth", I would be concerned with getting over the theme of ….."]
Main point 1: HOW Shakespeare uses setting to prepare the audience to pick up on other textual clues in characters' speech
Night = metaphor for evil. Textual proof = "torchbearer", "moon is down" and stars "candles are all are out". [Staging notes = Macbeth to be creeping about on his way to kill king; use lanterns = darkness in world, to see whole face (Banquo = light = good) or part of the face (Macbeth) to show good/bad sides of his character and to add to the atmosphere of mounting suspicion and suspense.]
Keep referring back to the title throughout the essay
Storm sounds = suggesting chaos and foreboding. Textual proof = "The night was unruly (sc 3)". Thunder and lightning sound effects. Suspense and horror. Death.
Enclosure = metaphor for the increasing isolation of Macbeth. . Textual proof = "courtyard", "Duncan's room" and "curtained sleep". [Staging notes = set to be surrounded by walls/curtains; no chinks of light to underline metaphor of evil and to add to the atmosphere of mounting suspicion and suspense; Macbeth to use body blocking movements - negative body language to show his increasing isolation from others; use the whole stage for impact; Duncan's room in sc ii to have light emitting = metaphor for good]
Main point 2: HOW Shakespeare uses character portrayal
Macbeth and Banquo are shown as a dramatic foil for each other. How could you tell that one represents the forces of good, and the other, evil? Appearances can be deceptive but although Macbeth appears to be friendly with Banquo, he is jarred by his answer that he is only prepared to get involved with honourable acts "allegience clear". Macbeth lies to Banquo "I think not of them" Should be able to trust your host - irony of Banquo's statement "A friend" . Banquo is becoming a little suspicious, despite being in a friend's castle. His answers are guarded.
Macbeth's changing states of mind throughout the 2 scenes. (Every day Miss Does Gym). HOW would you ask the actor to show the audience (Voice - Gestures - Expression).
There is a huge contrast between the Macbeth who deliberates over goring in to murder the king but is decisive ("I go and it is done" to the shaking Macbeth who stumbles in "holding 2 bloody daggers". [Staging notes (if director essay) = Macbeth goes through periods of jarred movement (creeping) - in control when faced with Banquo - jarred when experiencing hallucination - in control "I go and it is done" - jarred with daggers and staccato speech with wife. Costume = black (Macbeth) vs white (Banquo)? Or white outfit that is stained with Duncan's blood which horrifies Macbeth, his wife and the audience. Blocking body language and use of torch angle to personify good/evil. Macbeth is half shadow, Banquo in full light. Macbeth's soliloquy - dagger or no dagger? Chaos of mind possibly shown more fully if no dagger is seen but only grabbed at by frantic, guilt-ridden, evil-embracing Macbeth. The dagger leads him on so is the dagger a metaphor for his ambition?
Lady Macbeth - appears to be in control "A little water clears us of this deed " showing false ease but has had need to use strong alcohol (unnatural for women at that time = chaos of world with Macbeth's evil taking over), and who weakened at the sight of Duncan looking like her father. Jumpy at sound of owl shrieking and at the entrance of her husband = heightened sensibility. Owl = symbol of the night. Her pretence of heroic evil is failing.
Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth show major signs of weakness in these scenes. The weakness is a sign that their conscience is still there. Later on in the play, Macbeth shows no hesitation in words or actions eg Act 4 sc i.
Main point 3: HOW Shakespeare uses language to convey the sense of mounting suspicion and suspense?
Images of order and disorder to show dramatic foil in characterisation. Textual proof = "Merciful powers, restrain in me…" and then Macbeth's quite civilised discussion with Banquo = order, compared with "fatal vision", "heat-oppressed brain", "Tarquin", "wolf" which are images of chaos and destruction concerning predators, rape and chaotic minds. Macbeth is quite at ease with references to witchcraft and murder. Are these just images of destruction or do they symbolise what he is about to do: he is about to usurp the throne (Tarquin = rape) and he is the predator on unsuspecting prey (murdering his guest King Duncan)? He is not shocked by such references but we the audience are, as it is quite different to his previous persona. In scene ii innocent bird is now the "fatal bellman"; "Macbeth doth murder sleep"; "every noise appals me"
When Macbeth or his wife speak, their language is full of jarring consonants or alliteration "clutch" "blade and dudgeon gouts of blood", staccato rhythms "When?..How", which contrast well against the measured rhythm of Banquo's speech.
Banquo's appeal to heavenly powers for peace of mind is emotive and contrasts with Macbeth's claim that he has not only murdered Duncan but "sleep" itself. Supernatural image of the dagger would appeal to Elizabethan audiences as well as to modern.
Cue for the murder is the ring of the "bell" and later the owl shrieking would jar against the silence of the soliloquy and night time; mention of horrific images of rape and blood.
Image of Lady Macbeth as unsettled and not as controlled as she would have Macbeth believe.
Dramatic retelling of Macbeth's encounter with two other guests who wake in the night. He is obsessed with not being found out.
Man of action being seen as weak "I am afraid to think of what I have done" and being controlled by mother-like authority figure of Lady Macbeth "Consider it not so deeply" "Why worthy thane, You do unbend your noble strength to think so brainsickly of things." [The director might have him cowering down and looking distractedly at the blood over his clothes. Everyone, including the audience would share his horror.]
Re-entry of Lady Macbeth with blood on her hands.
Dramatic knocking at the gate would remind audience of the arrival of the forces of good (Macduff) to challenge the supremacy of evil.
Conclusion
This should sum up the fact that Shakespeare uses language and dramatic contrast to re-enforce this themes in these scenes. The regicide is the climax of the play and the audience are horrified to see a heroic figure degenerate in the way he does and it is his knowledge of the seriousness of his crime that gives him and not his wife tragic stature.
Carol Weale © 2001
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