The Death of King Duncan in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

The Death of King Duncan in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

In this essay I am going to explicate how Shakespeare makes the death

of king Duncan dramatic even though it is not on stage and I will use

evidence & quotes to back up my statement.

We all know that Macbeth went off to kill king Duncan at the end of

act 2 scene 1 & Lady Macbeth is waiting for Macbeth to come back from

the murder at act2 scene 2.

The first thing that we notice which reflects what's happening off

stage is through Shakespeare's use of language. In Lady Macbeths

speeches, she reflects the murder by using language such as "owl

shrieking," back then, the word owl was a reference to death & "fatal

bellman," the fatal bellman is someone who rang the bell before an

execution, this gives a signal on what is about to happen to king

Duncan & also the word fatal means deadly.

At the beginning of the scene we know that Lady Macbeth has been

drinking in order to cool her nerves. The drink she has given the

guards has given her confident, " bold & fire," but really she is

nervous underneath because when the owl shrieks, she jumps which

proves she isn't so confident after all.

Other examples of phrases that are used to reflect on what's happening

off stage are: "Live & die" & "death & nature," words like these

would've seemed dramatic then as the audience in Shakespeare's time

would've known these words were in reference to death.

As the scene goes on there is a sense of underlying fear between both

Macbeth & Lady Macbeth as they have a very brief conversation, the

short clipped sentences reveal they are jumpy, nervous & this conveys

a sense of tension. This is because they are both petrified of being

caught & the language reflects this.

Another way Shakespeare in which he makes the scene dramatic is by the

use of his stagecraft. An example for this is whilst Lady Macbeth is

on stage making a speech, the audience & Lady Macbeth are wondering