Shakespeare's Presentation of Macbeth Through the Use of Soliloquy in Act 1 scene 7 and Act 2 Scene 1 of Macbeth

Shakespeare's Presentation of Macbeth Through the Use of Soliloquy in Act 1 scene 7 and Act 2 Scene 1 of Macbeth

Soliloquies are frequently used in many places as a dramatic device. A

soliloquy is when, in a play for example, the speaker speaks to

himself and the audience while those in the background either freeze

or continue on as if the speaker isn't speaking at all. The soliloquy

is used so the speaker ca put across his thoughts, like freezing a

play in the middle of an act to confide in the audience his or her

feelings. The first soliloquy in "Macbeth" for instance tells you his

feelings and perspective on the upcoming events. Soliloquies are used

to the audience can see what is going on in the speakers mind. Often

the speaker will give a running commentary if he is in the process of

doing something.

Macbeth's character changes a lot in the duration of the play, and you

can see him slowly changing throughout. At the start of the play, we

first hear of Macbeth as the witches speak. Now the audience know that

he is the main character and we hear his name mentioned. As witches

are seen as ugly, evil creatures, we can gather from this that

something bad could be happening soon. Witches aren't associated with

good or happy things so the audience would be expecting something

sinister to happen. Next it cuts to a battlefield where the King meets

with a wounded captain, who then speaks extremely highly of Macbeth in

this battle that has been fought. He is described as "brave Macbeth"

and we are told, "he well deserves that name." So we know that Macbeth

must be fairly important, as the King obviously knows of him, he is a

captain and h...

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...motions would show what he is going through, yet

in the 2nd I think less would have their opinions changed because he

seems a lot calmer and more confident and I feel that those more

confident with their understanding of the play would have a deeper

understanding of how Macbeth is actually changing underneath the

surface, while others may just see it as him being more confident and

him changing for the better. It shows the different ways Macbeth can

be interpreted, either as him being pushed into this, perhaps having

an effect on him later on, the dagger illusion being just the start

while it could be interpreted as Macbeth becoming more confident of

himself, and slowly losing his emotion of guilt. It could be

interpreted that this was the first step to him becoming the cruel and

unforgiving character he later becomes.