Shakespeare wrote his play 'Macbeth' at the start of King James I's rule. Shakespeare created Macbeth to be a play which appealed to the King by using many themes like the supernatural and violence to outline the consequences of breaching the Great Chain of Being. Shakespeare uses graphic imagery, foreshadowing and hyperbole to show violence throughout a range of events in the play.
The idea of violence comes into action right at the start of play in the captain's speech in Act 1 Scene 2. The captain labels Macbeth as "brave' as he "unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps". This description implies that Macbeth physically cut open the body of his enemy. This graphic image of methods of violence in the war between Scotland and Norway highlights how violent Macbeth is even though it was for a noble cause. These actions were seen as an action of loyalty to the monarch and state which could trigger this violence in Macbeth to become unchecked later on because his violent actions are being rewarded. The praising of Macbeth's actions could create a domino effect where Macbeth sees any violent act he commits like ordering the killing of Banqu0 or the murdering of Macduff's family to be morally acceptable in society. These actions were seen as noble in the eyes of King Duncan and were probably seen in a similar way in King James I's mind to as it could like the to guards which uncovered the gunpowder plot of 1605 and the violent punishment that the traitors had faced. Shakespeare's use of graphic imagery and praising of violent acts could lead to more violence in the play as Macbeth's violent mindset becomes uncontrollable.
This uncontrollable violent mindset it presented only a few scenes later in Macbeth himself. Macbeth ponders on the idea that "Stars hide you fires, let not light see my black and deep desires,". This proves that Macbeth has become a violent character on and off the battlefield. His mindset isn't just a bloodthirsty one, but also a duplicitous one which aims to deceive the people in order to reach his goal of becoming king. This unchecked ambition dives the plot and foreshadows all of the acts of violence that Macbeth commits following this scene as it proves that Macbeth is fully aware of his actions and it is in his plan to rule like a tyrant and deceive the people. His idea that "Stars hide your fires" further implies that if you do some good actions like being noble to the king, any sinful actions that come after can be ignored and unnoticed. This could also imply that Macbeth wants to commit these sins in private full well knowing that if anyone other than Lady Macbeth finds out about his truth, then he will be humiliated and confronted for his duplicitous character and his power will be lost.
Shakespeare foreshadows violence later on in the play by highlighting Banquo's shroud character. In Act 3 Scene 3, just before the murder of banquo, he claims that "It will be rain tonight" which means that Banquo predicted his out death. Shakespeare uses pathetic fallacy to shift the mood to a dark and violent one which could lead the audience to predict the upcoming events in the play. The use of the word 'rain' could represent the bloodshed that will occur not only in the scene of Banquo's murder but also forever in the play until Macbeth is striped from power and the Great Chain of being is restored. Banquo could also be implying that the rain could be a sign that God hinting that he evil is coming to him. Since Banquo is a victim of Macbeth's unchecked violence, this could imply that Macbeth was never fit to rule Scotland as a worthy king would not need to kill people to sustain power over the people. Macbeth's repeated violation of natural order indicates that Macbeth is unstable and will eventually experience a tragic hero and fall in the exact way he rose.
Shakespeare not only outlines the frequency of violence throughout the play but also the magnitude of the actions especially ones like regicide. By the time Macbeth can killed the king, he had entered the state of carcass of insanity and he cannot fathom what he had just done. he questioned "will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood". The use of the possessive pronoun in 'great Neptune's ocean' creates a sense of hyperbole because Macbeth is debating in his head wether water so much as water from great Neptune's ocean can even clear the vast amount of blood from his hands that have come from Macbeth's murder of the king. Shakespeare has brought Macbeth to a brief sense of clarity where he has finally understood his crazy action and has realised how made his action was. However, this sense of clarity cannot last for long because the actions committed are irreversible and Macbeth has to hide the truth from the people which means that Macbeth can ever carry on with what he has done or crumble miserably and be humiliated in front of the people. At this point, Macbeth's violence is unchecked and the reason that Macbeth becomes uncontrollable is due to the irresistible truth that if Macbeth wants to be king then he will need to understand that there is no way back from his actions and that his mind is now controlled by violence which is the reason why he cannot stop.
Overall, Shakespeare presents the theme of violence to be unchecked throughout everyone in the play even if it started off as a noble act in war, it led to events which caused Macbeth's tragic hero and eventual hamartia. Shakespeare used graphic imagery, blood imagery and hyperbole to illustrate the magnitude of Macbeth's violent actions act how they affected the whole plot of the play as a whole.
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