How does Shakespeare Create Atmosphere using the Language

How does Shakespeare Create Atmosphere using the Language?

Most of the play is written in Iambic Pentameter, which affects how it

feels and the atmosphere because it sets the fast tempo of the play.

If the play had been written with, for example, more a flowing style

then it would seem less urgent and more secure because Iambic

Pentameter is very choppy which gives it a sense of urgency because it

moulds the tone voice to sound urgent. This is effective for many

parts of the play such as Act 5 scenes III and IV when Macbeth is just

waiting for the soldiers to come to the castle before his nearly

certain death.

Iambic Pentameter has the stress every second syllable so it is not

very flexible because there is not much room to be creative because

the stress is so frequent. I think that it is used because it gives

the sense of urgency. This is because it makes people feel unstable

and unsettled. This is good for the play because the plot is about a

murder that is totally wrong and the murderers cannot come to terms

with it and so they suffer and die as well, this is not supposed to

make the audience feel reassured and settled! This next quotation

shows the choppy style and how it can help make the scene unsettled.

'MACBETH: This is a sorry sight.

LADY MACBETH: A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.

MACBETH: There's one did laugh in's sleep,

And one cried Murther, that they did awake each other:

I stood, and heard them: but they did say their prayers,

And address'd them again to sleep.' Act 2 scene II

This quotation is after the murder of Duncan, the king and shows the

effect of Iambic Pentameter. The lines are chop...

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...s that only

the witches speak like this so it seems unnatural which adds effect to

the witches speech. 'ALL: The Weird sisters, hand in hand,

Posters of the sea and land,

Thus do go about, about,

Thrice to thrine, and thrice to mine

And thrice again to make up nine.' Act 1 scene III

From this quotation we can see that all the words at the end of the

line rhyme and this gives a chanting and mysterious effect because all

the other language in the play is either very choppy (Iambic

pentameter) or just usual language (prose). This sets the witches

apart from everyone else in the play and gives the effect that they

are different or supernatural.

The language is used to create the mysterious, unsettled atmosphere of

the play and because of the many styles and techniques used it does

its job very well.