Audience's Attention in the Banquet Scene in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Audience's Attention in the Banquet Scene in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Introduction

Shakespeare, although a superb storyteller, was not a historian but he

did realise that historical events could provide very good material

for plays. Macbeth was a real Scottish Lord who was born in 1005 and

elected King of Scotland. Shakespeare used this character on which to

base his play. However, Shakespeare also changed the story line of

his play to make it more appealing to his audience. He made Macbeth

into an ambitious warlord who kills a good King in order to gain

power. He also includes the character of Banquo in the play, again

another real Scottish Lord from whom James I, King of Scotland and

England at the time Shakespeare wrote the play, was supposed to be

descended.

So Shakespeare immediately has made his play appealing to royalty and

Jacobean audiences who were very interested in the role of their King,

who had not long ascended to the throne of England when the play was

written. Shakespeare ensures that he doesn’t upset the King by making

Banquo into a wronged hero and also includes ideas such as witchcraft,

the supernatural and the struggle between good and evil, for which

James I had a fascination. Shakespeare very cleverly interweaves

these ideas into the play. In addition, Shakespeare made sure that he

included plenty of references to popular news stories in the play so

that his audience remained interested.

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The Banquet Scene is a pivotal point in the play of “Macbeth”. It is

a very important turning point because it is the scene that shows the

audience that Macbeth is losing control of his position and it marks

his eventual downfall. Shakespeare structures the scene in such a way

that unusual events take place and so hold the audience’s attention

throughout. The scene is very visual and has lots of impact. There

is a lot of blood shown and Macbeth’s behaviour is extreme as he