To be precise, Macbeth does not appear in the first two scenes of the play. But by the time he does appear, alongside his friend, comrade, and fellow Scottish noble Banquo, we have learned much about him. From the first scene, for example, we learn that the witches, who are clearly up to no good, plan to meet with Macbeth. In the second scene, we hear an account of a battle involving Macbeth, where he is revealed to be a brave and apparently loyal thane to the king, who he defends against a rebellion led by the traitor Macdonwald. We also learn that Macbeth is held in high esteem by King Duncan, who values him as a "valiant cousin" and a "worthy gentleman." We also see that Macbeth is to receive the title of Thane of Cawdor. The former thane, having joined the rebellion, is to be executed at Duncan's order. So even though Macbeth has not appeared on stage by the end of the second scene, we know much about him and his circumstances. Perhaps by waiting until the third scene to introduce the title character, Shakespeare intends to add to the sense in which Macbeth is affected by forces outside his control, especially the witches. It is also true that Duncan's admiration for Macbeth adds to the sense of treachery that accompanies Macbeth's assassination of the king later. Through the witches' incantations that "what's fair is foul/what's foul is fair, the first scene has often been described as setting the stage for the villainy and evil that pervade the entire play. So by leaving Macbeth out of the first two scenes, Shakespeare arguably adds to the depth of the plot.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Why is the fact that the Americans are helping the Russians important?
In the late author Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October, the assistance rendered to the Russians by the United States is impor...
-
There are a plethora of rules that Jonas and the other citizens must follow. Again, page numbers will vary given the edition of the book tha...
-
The poem contrasts the nighttime, imaginative world of a child with his daytime, prosaic world. In the first stanza, the child, on going to ...
-
The given two points of the exponential function are (2,24) and (3,144). To determine the exponential function y=ab^x plug-in the given x an...
-
The play Duchess of Malfi is named after the character and real life historical tragic figure of Duchess of Malfi who was the regent of the ...
-
The only example of simile in "The Lottery"—and a particularly weak one at that—is when Mrs. Hutchinson taps Mrs. Delacroix on the...
-
Hello! This expression is already a sum of two numbers, sin(32) and sin(54). Probably you want or express it as a product, or as an expressi...
-
Macbeth is reflecting on the Weird Sisters' prophecy and its astonishing accuracy. The witches were totally correct in predicting that M...
No comments:
Post a Comment