How Does Shakespeare Incorporate Literary Traditions Into Macbeth? Essay

In the play Macbeth Shakespeare uses a wide range of literary traditions frequently: For example, ideas of tragic form are used, with aspects of both Senecan and Aristotlean concepts. The play consists of five acts, a traditional number, following the rise and fall of the tragic hero Macbeth. Elizabethan language conventions are followed, with numerous examples of rhyming couplets, imagery, personification, metaphors and similes used to project settings and aspects of characters. Macbeth follows the ideas of both Senecan and Aristotlean tragedies, using their concepts of how a tragedy should be set out and how it should flow. The play has five acts that separate the play out into the stages of the rise and fall of Macbeth, the central character. The first act explains his rise to the position of thane of Cawdor and the beginnings of the witches influence over him. The second act follows his position to its highest point; it firstly sees the death of Duncan, an act carried out by Macbeth, greatly influenced at this point by the witches. In this act Macbeth is promoted to king following the death of Duncan for which he is not suspected. Act three sees an ever increasing influence from the witches which results in a dramatic turn around of Macbeth’s position as he begins to break down after the banquet scene in which the ghost of Banquo is seen. This turning point signals the beginning of the downfall of Macbeth leading eventually to his death in act five. The events in the banquet scene arouse suspicion of Macbeth as he cries openly in front of a figure that no one else present can see. â€Å"Hence horrible shadow, unreal mockery hence!†(3.4.106-7) During the play Macbeth, both blank verse and prose are used in a structural way. The contrast between the flowing speech of blank verse used by the more important and well-educated characters and the ordinary speech or prose used by the more lowly or uneducated characters is designed and incorporated to demonstrate the differences in social status between them. This difference is demonstrated well by the porter who opens the doors of the castle on the night of Duncan’s murder. He speaks in prose and rambles on, as he is merely a servant of Macbeth’s with little or no social status. Macbeth however as he is the central character in the play and a lord or Thane of high social status speaks almost entirely in rhyming verse. Iambic pentameters are used in the play to avoid monotony as they give rhythm to a sentence and stress the more important words in it. An example of this is â€Å"I have thee not and yet I see thee still† (2,1,35) which is said by Macbeth as he sees the dagger before him but cannot touch it. In this sentence the more important words are obviously emphasized as shown by the underlining. Rhyming couplets are part of another literary tradition and are also used to give a natural and obvious conclusion to a speech, this property was used by Shakespeare as a cue for other actors as it could easily be remembered and recognised by them. Rhyming couplets are also used to indicate supernatural powers of a character in a play, as they sound unusual and ghostlike when spoken. This can be demonstrated in this speech by the weird sisters: â€Å"Fair is foul and foul is fair; Hover through fog and filthy air.† Shakespeare uses a number of examples of imagery, personification, metaphors and similes in the play. Imagery is used to project many of the themes of the play. One method of imagery used by Shakespeare is clothing, which displays the theme that appearances can be deceptive. For example in act one when Macbeth is given the title, â€Å"thane of cawdor† he asks, â€Å"why do you dress me in borrowed robes?†(1.3.108-9) as he believes that the thane of Cawdor still lives. Later in the play another reference to clothing is used in: â€Å"Now does he feel his title hang loose about him, like a giants robe upon a dwarfish thief?†(5.2.20-3) This refers to Macbeth’s unsuitability as king; he is a dwarfish thief who has stolen the title of king from the true king. Another chain of images used in the play relate to blood, which is used frequently in reports of murders and in describing people and events to demonstrate the brutality of the play and of the acts committed in it. Imagery is used vividly to describe the murdered Duncan and after the murder of Banquo Macbeth says to one of his murderers: â€Å"There’s blood upon thy face†(3.4.12). This shows that the murder must have been particularly violent, as blood has sprayed onto the face of the murderer. Metaphors and similes are also used frequently in the play to demonstrate the deception that is used by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. This intended deception is shown by: â€Å"Your hand your tongue: look like th’innocent hower but be the serpent under’t.† This sentence shows that the intention of Macbeth is to look innocent and pleasant on the surface in order to deceive someone into a false sense of security in order to get rid of them by murdering them. Throughout Macbeth Shakespeare has used a number of different literary traditions, which enhance the dramatic effect of the play for the modern day audience, and to include popular traditional values for the audience for whom it was intended.