How does Macbeth Feel after Killing Duncan

Introduction

In this critical analysis of Macbeth, I am going to be using Aristotle’s six elements from The Poetics; I am going to be analyzing the playwriting, acting, and directing. Lastly, I will talk about the lighting, set, costumes, sound, and conclusion to analyze Macbeth. I am going to give my point of view on Macbeth and my feedback on it. In my opinion, it was a good play. It kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the whole play because I did not know what was going to happen next.

I enjoyed this play, and I would recommend others to see this.

Plot and Character Dynamics

The first thing I am going to start off with Aristotle’s six elements of the poetic is the Plot of Macbeth, Macbeth, and Banquo, who are generals serving King Duncan of Scotland; they meet the three witch sisters who give Macbeth a prophecy that he will become Thane of Cawdor, then later become king, but consumed with ambition and hurried to action by Lady Macbeth. Macbeth then murders Duncan and takes the throne of the king for himself but finds himself full of guilt and paranoia. He is then forced to commit more and more murders. Macbeth soon becomes a cruel ruler, and shortly after the bloodbath, it swiftly takes Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into madness and death. The second element from Aristotle’s six elements is characters; Macbeth is our protagonist, the character who makes the play what it is; the antagonists are Duncan, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Menteith, Malcolm III, three sisters, and Siward which he comes in conflict with. These characters do not make Macbeth kill them, his greed to become king has taken over, and he just keeps killing them until he makes his way to the king, but after all that, no one likes him what he has become all of it was for nothing. The third element from Aristotle’s six elements is thought; the thought in Macbeth is showing having too much ambition can make people act ruthless; Macbeth is too eager to have power, and after hearing the witch’s prophecy, he rationalizes killing King Duncan. We see through what this leads to. He becomes obsessed with the blood on his hands. Although he is confident before he kills Duncan, that would help him throughout his dreams of becoming king after he kills Duncan. Macbeth starts to feel so guilty that he cannot sleep; after killing Duncan, he becomes tormented and eventually is killed.

Exploring Thought and Theme

Macbeth’s ambition made him think there were no consequences, and rather than happiness as a result of being king, it leads to great unhappiness. I think the message that people would get from Macbeth would be that happiness does not come with the title you hold; it comes from who the title belongs to. The Fourth element in Aristotle’s six elements is Diction; the diction is in a poetic manner, and metaphors and imagery are in the dialogue. It often seems forced and difficult to understand; the vocabulary and writing style suggests that Shakespeare was highly educated in the English language. The words that are spoken throughout this production are in an English accent, so Shakespeare, being educated in the English language, used it for Macbeth’s dialogue. The fifth element in Aristotle’s six elements is Spectacle, the spectacle in Macbeth by creating characters for the tragic incident that are close to one another, making the tragic incident between Macbeth and King Duncan, the first scene of Macbeth is the three witches giving Macbeth the prophecy that he would be Thane of Cawdor and king one day, but Duncan is the king right now.

So this scene shows the audience that there is going to be a tragic incident between Macbeth and Duncan. There was that tragic incident in the production. The sixth and final element in Aristotle’s six elements is Song; the song through Macbeth is used to give fear and pity to the audience, which is throughout this play. As the viewer, there was fear of who was going to be killed next when Macbeth hired three murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. That was terrible, although Fleance did get away. I had, and I am sure everyone else watching this play, was full of fear of who was going to be murdered next. Duncan and Macduff were killed already. Who was next? Pity throughout Macbeth was for Duncan, Banquo, and Macduff and for his family after being murdered by Macbeth, and for his own personal ambition. The Play writes, acting, and directing I am going to talk about in this paragraph. The first thing I am going to talk about is the Play write Shakespeare did a very good job of setting the tone of Macbeth being a tragedy throughout the whole play. It was so intense in each scene I was on the edge of my seat, waiting for what was to come next.

Reflection on Acting and Directing

Shakespeare wrote this as a tragedy, and it was definitely a tragedy; every death was a tragedy. The Acting throughout this play was very good. The actors played their parts so well, the way they talked was very poetic, and the effects throughout were so realistic. When it came to the scenes where there was a stabbing, the actors did so well in making it look like the person was really being stabbed. The last thing I am going to talk about is the directing; the directing was so good in this play; each person that was on the stage doing their scene exited the stage when they were supposed to do. The ones that came in knew when the timing was right because of the directing of the director. The ones that were stabbed and were on the ground had to have good direction on when to leave. If there was not a good director, the whole play would not run smoothly, and everyone would not know where to go.

In this next paragraph, I am going to talk about the lighting, set, costumes, and sound. The first thing I am going to talk about is the lighting and sound; the lighting throughout this production was very good; they were on each actor/actress when they were supposed to be and turned away from them when they were supposed to do so. The person in charge of the lights did very well by following the actors when they would walk on and off the stage. The lighting is so important because if it is not dim when it should be to make the scene intense or bright to give the scene excitement, it would ruin the whole thing. The person in charge of the lights plays a big part in these plays, even if it does not seem like it. If there was not someone doing this, no one would be able to see these great plays. The sound is next to talk about it; the sound effects were really good throughout this production. The thunder especially sounded real, and all the actors/actresses were all loud enough to hear; they all spoke really clearly so that everyone would be able to hear them in such a big room. The second thing I am going to talk about is the set, the set was really good, and each scene was so good. When the scene that had the moon looked so real, It was a pretty cool-looking moon. The scene with the witch’s bonfire looked like a real bonfire, and the fire looked so real; they did a really good job of making all these sets look so real.

The third thing I am going to talk about is the costumes; the costumes looked very nice and not cheaply made. Even being as far away as I was, I could tell they were pretty good quality. Each costume was picked perfectly for the characters that were being played; the dress Lady Macbeth wore was a pretty dress and looked like something that would have been worn in Shakespeare’s time; all of the outfits were fitting for the time Shakespeare wrote this. In conclusion, I think it was a good play. It kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the whole play because I did not know what was going to happen next. I would recommend others to see this play. This was interesting, knowing Aristotle’s six elements from The Poetics, analyzing the playwriting, acting, and directing. The lighting, set, costumes, and sound. Who knew all of this stuff was so important to have for a play? You have to have all of these elements to make it a great production, no matter what play it was. Each one is going to be in the plays to make them great productions.

Conclusion

Overall this was a great play, and the director and actors/actresses did a good job of making this a great play; they all played their characters like they were really them. I enjoyed this so much. They put in so much time to give us this great production, and I am sure they will continue to keep up with their great performances and they will never disappoint the audience.

References

1. “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare

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