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What are examples of figurative language that many poets use
Figurative language essay examples
Figurative language essay examples
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Figurative Language in Macbeth
Macbeth is a play written by the famous playwright William Shakespeare in the year 1606. The play is about two soldiers whose lives are forever changed by the predictions heard from three witches. The main character Macbeth uses these predictions as a reason to allow him to murder the king and take the throne. Macbeth and his wife are overcome by greed and ambition and will do anything to keep their throne, even if it involves killing close friends and their families. The play ends when a soldier named Macduff returns to avenge the death of his family by slaying Macbeth. In the play, Shakespeare employs many different uses of figurative language and literary devices to show similarities and differences in scenery,
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tone, mood, and characters and to also add to his expressive style of writing. Throughout the play Shakespeare uses similes to enhance his expressive styles and to show similarities in scenery, tone, mood, and characters.
For example “Doubtful it stood; As two spent swimmers, that do cling together And choke their art.” (I, ii,10-11) Shakespeare uses this simile to show how the rebellion in the beginning of the play was doomed from the start and that the rebel leader, Macdonwald, fought to the death even though his rebellion was doomed. Another use of a simile by Shakespeare is “But like a man he died,” (V, viii, 43) This simile shows that Macbeth is a mortal human being, even though he sees himself as a king who will rule for a long time. He also believes that he can not be killed by a normal man. Shakespeare uses yet another simile to show how a sargent fought like a good soldier and how he is a good soldier by continuing to fight even though he is wounded. The simile is “Like a good and hardy soldier fought ‘gainst my captivity.” (I, ii, 3-5) With the use of these similes Shakespeare enhances his expressive style and shows vivid comparisons between many …show more content…
things. He also uses alliteration in Macbeth to show his expressive writing style.
One example of alliteration is “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” (I,i, 12) Shakespeare uses alliteration here to show the importance of this line and to also add some expression. Another use of alliteration is “Double, double toil and trouble…” (IV, i, 10) This example of alliteration is used to add expression and character to the line. This line is also a witches spell being brewed therefore it is written to sound like a “traditional” witches spell. Again, Shakespeare uses alliteration when Macbeth says “But now i am cabin’d, cribbed, confin’d, bound in to saucy doubts and fears.” (III, iv, 25-26) This example of alliteration is used to show a change in Macbeth’s feelings. In the lines leading up to this example Macbeth is excited due to his own feelings of invincibility, but then he learns that Fleance has escaped and that he will become a problem in the
future. Last but not least Shakespeare uses paradox in order to show how expressive his writing is and to also add a sense of hidden meaning to his words. One example of paradox is “Foul is fair, and fair is foul.” (I, i, 12) This line means that not all things are as they appear. That even though something may appear “foul” is could be fair, and visa versa. Another example of paradox is “This supernatural soliciting cannot be good, cannot be ill” (I, iii, 138) This line is spoken by Macbeth while he is pondering the meaning of the witches prophecy. He can not decide whether he feels that the predictions are good or bad, nor can he decide what to do about them. One last example of paradox is “Look like th’ innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t” (I, v, 56-57) This line is said by Lady Macbeth to Macbeth, and what she is telling him is that he needs to look as innocent as possible but when he gets the chance he needs to slay King Duncan. This is a paradox because Lady Macbeth also look innocent, although she is the mastermind of the whole plan. In conclusion, Shakespeare used many examples of figurative language and literary devices in order to show his expressive writing style and to distinguish many characteristics of the play Macbeth. These characteristics being scenery, mood, tone and the characters themselves. Without the use of figurative language and literary devices Macbeth would not have been as meaningful and deliberate in the way scenes were established and in the way the plot developed.
For brave Macbeth well he deserves that name/ Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel/Which smoked with bloody execution/Like valour's minion carved out his passage/Till he faced the slave;
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a fictional play written by English poet William Shakespeare. The play is set in eleventh century Scotland, during the reign of King James the first. Shakespeare evidently writes in this time period to describe the link between leaders and their supreme or ultimate power. The play was first performed in the year 1606, at the world famous Globe Theatre, and is considered one of the most profound and compelling tragedies ever told. The Tragedy of Macbeth tells the tale of a brave Scottish general named Macbeth and his ambitious desire to become king of Scotland. While he and another commander named Banquo return home from war they stumble into three hagged looking witches. The witches offer the men an enticing prophecy that leads to a more pivotal role found later in the play. Throughout the play Macbeth is seen confronting his own moral ambiguity to the heinous acts he must perform to get the position he most desires. “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, [s]hakes so my single state of man” (Shakespeare 1.3.152-53). This uncertainty, present in the scenes of Duncan’s murder, the feast, and the witch’s final predictions each unfold the ambiguity needed to understand the basis of the work as a whole.
To begin with, Macbeth is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare that believed to have taken place around 1606. This play dramatizes the physical, emotional, and psychological effects of those who seek power for ones’ sake. In this play a Scottish General named Macbeth receives predictions from three witches that voice him he will one day become the King of Scotland. With determination his wife takes action convincing him to murder King Duncan therefore he would become king. Macbeth then becomes paranoid and filled with guilt, forcing him to commit more murders to protect himself from suspicion. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth then receive the madness of death.
History has been filled with evil people doing evil things for power whether that means killing or putting other people down. The truth is everyone wants power and once that power is gained they will do whatever to maintain it. In the play Macbeth written by Shakespeare the main character receives a prophecy from witches (wierd sisters) telling him he will become king. Acting in response Macbeth kills the king and soon becomes the new king. The play follows his story as he struggles to maintain his power and battles against those threaten his rule. In Act 3 scene 1, Macbeth's’ soliloquy about Banquo, his best friend, expresses the tones of fear, jealousy, and anger through the literary devices of metaphors, repetition, and foreshadowing, which
Macbeth is the story of how an ordinary war hero becomes king and later goes chaotic with power. The story starts off in Scotland when Macbeth and Banquo meet some witches who predict their futures, telling Macbeth that he will be Thane of Cawdor, and the king of Scotland. Ross; one of the king’s lords, delivers the news that Macbeth has become the new Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth now believes that he will become king. To achieve this, Macbeth invites King Duncan over for a dinner.
This essay earned a 89/100. it was a lot of work considering the lines from macbeth for textual support.
Through the use of blood imagery in Macbeth, Shakespeare is able to characterize the character of Macbeth. As Macbeth commits numerous crimes and despicable acts throughout the play, his character transforms from a guilt ridden thane who adores his kind and risks his life to protect him and his country, into a savage, murderous king encouraged by greed and madness.
Macbeth’s attitude changes dramatically from feeling guilty, at the beginning, to being a vivacious tyrant, at the end. Macbeth starts a trend of murdering his citizens because of paranoia and continues to make his country, Scotland, much worst. Ross speaks out about what is going on in Scotland and says “Alas, poor country, almost afraid to know itself. It cannot Be called our mother, but our grave, where nothing But who knows nothing is once seen to smile. Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rent the air Are made, not marked.” (iv.iii.164-169) Ross explains that Macbeth is killing so many people that the country is frightened and is no longer a dominant country. Ross also says that all citizens are sad and the streets are filled with screams. Ross continues to say Scotland is so bad that people’s lives are so short. Ross claims “The dead man’s knell there scarce asked for who, and good men’s lives Expire before the flowers in their caps, Dying or ere they sicken.” (iv.iii.170-175) Ross says Macbeth’s causing people to die before a flower can die. This figurative language shows how relatively quick
Macbeth is a tragedy written by Shakespeare roughly between the years 1603 and 1606. It was a play written following the death of Queen Elizabeth. The king at the time - James I of England/King James VI of Scotland was known to be a big supporter of theatre, witchcraft and demonology. Shakespeare and his associates soon into their career became known as the King’s men. The Kings ancestry was traced back to Banquo, a character from the play.
The Tragedy of Macbeth written by William Shakespeare is a tale of a man and his un-bridled ambition, set in ancient Scotland. Macbeth is a nobleman of the king of Scotland, Duncan, who is in mid-war with Norway. Macbeth and his fellow general Banquo encounter three witches. The witches tell the pair that Macbeth will be king, and Banquo’s children will also be kings. Any person in their right mind would question information given to them by strangers, let alone witches, but for some reason these statements intrigue Macbeth. They temp Macbeth to do evil things such as treason, and worse, to kill. Although un-bridled ambition is his main tragic flaw, there is one more that plays a big role in his decisions and the outcome of the story; Macbeth is far too impressionable.
Macbeth is a play about tragedy. It tells the tale of one man’s evil rise to becoming king and his tragic downfall that led to his death. Nevertheless, it is also a play about the political history surrounding that king. Shakespeare took the story of Macbeth from Raphael Holinshed’s Scottish Chronicle in 1570 and even more from the second edition, Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1587. From these books he was able to take bits and pieces of history, combine events, omit others, create his own tale of King Macbeth and make it appealing to the King and people of his time.
Macbeth, a tragedy play by written William Shakespeare. Throughout the play the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is the engine that drives the tragedy of the play. Macbeth is a play about a Scottish knight named Macbeth who comes back from battle and meets three ‘witches’. They predict that Macbeth shall become king. At first he was skeptical though when it was announced by King Duncan that he will be made Thane of Cawdor, the next in line for king for his bravery on the battlefield he believed that their prediction was possible. With this event Macbeth believes the witches' predictions are true so he informs his wife Lady Macbeth whom upon hearing the news becomes excited and supportive of the idea. The two of them murder Duncan and Macbeth becomes king as the witches foretold and from then on in they lie, kill and create madness so that Macbeth may remain king. At the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth and Macbeth shared a loving relationship in which Lady Macbeth is support of his goals. Their relationship changes dramatically after the murder of King Duncan. They both change as individuals thus changing their relationship. Their destructive relationship influences the murders madness and deaths in the play. The two of them are so ambitious that together they push each other to achieve their goals no matter what.
Macbeth rejects conformation to traditional gender roles in its portrayal of Lady Macbeth’s relationship with her husband, her morals and their effect on her actions, and her hunger for power. Her regard for Macbeth is one of low respect and beratement, an uncommon and most likely socially unacceptable attitude for a wife to have towards her spouse at the time. She often ignores morality and acts for the benefit of her husband, and subsequently herself. She is also very power-hungry and lets nothing stand in the way of her success. Lady Macbeth was a character which challenged expectations of women and feminism when it was written in the seventeenth century.
In Macbeth, William Shakespeare uses allusion and metaphor to characterize Macbeth as fearful of betrayal. Macbeth is thinking of Banquo’s character and how he would act and draws a comparison between what he suspects Banquo’s behaviors will be and a historical event, “My genius is rebuked, as it is said/ Mark Antony’s was by Caesar.” (III, i, ln. 61-62). Shakespeare makes an allusion to Caesar and Mark Antony. The allusion shows Macbeth’s comparison of Mark Antony’s relationship with Caesar to Banquo’s relationship with him. The allusion characterizes Macbeth’s fear of betrayal because Mark Antony was the man who interfered with Caesar’s ability to rule. The allusion shows how Macbeth fears a similar scenario occurring where Banquo will interfere
The author of Macbeth is William Shakespeare, and he is well known for his plays and language. The play starts off with our main character Macbeth who is told of his prophecy by the three witches of him being the king of Scotland. Knowing this Macbeth is then persuaded by his wife to take the life of his king and take the throne. Macbeth is now paranoid about what he has and had done now to become king and securing it. William Shakespeare uses the literary elements; imagery, alliteration, and symbolism to illustrate the theme guilt.