Explore Shakespeare’s use of language effects and dramatic devices and how they reveal the action of ambition on the character Macbeth or lady Macbeth.

Macbeth’s state of mind deteriorates as the play progresses and the more evil actions he commits.

Paragraph 1

How Macbeth was perceived before he was told his future. Using the metaphor of the smoking sword.

“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;”

Lady macbeth describing macbeth. Explaining the milk of human kindness.

“Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it”

Paragraph 2

After killing king duncan he hallucinates a dagger and explains how he can’t wash his bloody hands (guilt)

“Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?”

He becomes paranoid of Banquo and gives orders to have him secretly killed. Later he hallucinates his ghost because of all the guilt of killing his best friend for no rational reason.

“Prithee, see there! behold! look! lo!
how say you?
Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.
If charnel-houses and our graves must send
Those that we bury back, our monuments
Shall be the maws of kites.”

paragraph 3

Macbeth is considered a tyrant by the people of Scotland and the country has gone to chaos.

“I would not be the villain that thou think’st
For the whole space that’s in the tyrant’s grasp,
And the rich East to boot”

Paragraph 4

Macbeth learns that lady macbeth has killed herself he falls into despair and he realizes that life is meaningless and all his evil actions and sacrifices were for nothing.

“She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”

One Reply to “Explore Shakespeare’s use of language effects and dramatic devices and how they reveal the action of ambition on the character Macbeth or lady Macbeth.”

  1. You’ve got quite a lot still to do in this essay, Ruby.

    It looks like you’ve got all your ideas in order, however the job now is to put these into long-form in the writing. Can I assist you with this in any way?

    For more information about how to construct paragraphs that examine language effects, remember you can refer to the exemplars and guides published on the class website

    The task outline also provides helpful advice, especially via the annotated essay exemplar, which will assist you to see how to put the structure of the essay together as well as to understand the kind of advanced writing effects are helpful in essays such as this one.

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