The Dramatic Effectiveness of Act One, Scene Three in Presenting Macbeth's Predicament

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The Dramatic Effectiveness of Act One, Scene Three in Presenting Macbeth's Predicament

Macbeth is quite a short play written by William Shakespeare first

performed apparently to King James 1 in 1606 at Hampton Court. It is

said that Macbeth was written in either 1605 or 1606 and there can be

no doubt that it was written to please King James 1, who at the time

had just been elected patron of Shakespeare's theatre group.

Macbeth is a complicated story that is generally a tragedy that

involves the king of Scotlandand his trusted followers. King Duncan is

shown in the play as a good king, who is a much respected character by

others and rules with no apparent problems baring the uprising at the

start, but in real life he was apparently not as good a king as is

shown in the play. King Duncan has three other family members in the

play, his two sons Malcolm, Donalbain and his cousin Macbeth, the

Thane of Glamis, which the play revolves around. The story of Macbeth

involves three witches who read Macbeth and his fellow general of the

King's army, Banquo's future, and Banquo is unfazed by the Witches

predictions but Macbeth is not like his friend and is disturbed by

what they say and it starts to take control of him.

The audience in those days would have been very superstitious and

believed in evil and the idea witches, so as soon as the witches would

have been seen in the film they would straight away believe they were

evil. The audience would believe that the witches could influence

things like the weather and tell the future and these kinds of things

would have been seen as wicked. James 1 also wrote a book on

supernatural happenings and...

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...s shows the scenes with great character contrast and

dramatic tension, by using the superstitions of the time to influence

the audience that witches are evil, but he makes them unsure of

Macbeth right until the end of scene iii. The language he uses is very

menacing and the stagecraft he uses is crucial, like words spoken

aside, which let the audience know what the character is feeling and

gives the audience an insight into what the characters were really

like on the inside.

Throughout the play the dramatic structures and devices used in

showing the characters, especially Macbeth and the witches, really

uses the superstitions of the time making a disturbing, tension filled

play. If the play was shown in these days, I doubt it would have the

same affect as we do not have the superstitions as they did I those

days.

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