Analyse the ways in which Shakespeare evokes contradictory feelings towards his characters.
In the beginning of the play, Shakespeare makes Macbeth out to be a good, brave and honest man that is well admired by many, for example when the Captain describes Macbeth as “For brave Macbeth, well he deserves that name.” (1.2.16) and when King Duncan discusses the triumph of capturing Cawdor with Ross, he states “What he hath lost, noble Macbeth has won,” describing Macbeth as noble showing clear signs of Duncan’s admiration of Macbeth.
But by Scene 3 of Act 1, the audience is made well aware of Macbeth’s real intentions during his soliloquy where he is still horrified by the thought of murdering Duncan yet concludes that he must accept whatever has to be. This is the beginning of when the audience starts their contradictory feelings toward Macbeth, as we know that any honest, brave and good man would never even consider regicide to achieve their aims.
By Act 2 Scene 2, Macbeth has killed Duncan and our opinion of Macbeth has taken a 180 degrees turn, as Macbeth killing Duncan contradicts what the audience is told at the beginning of the play.
Comment on the significance of dialogue and ensemble scenes in affecting mood and positioning the audience.
Whether it is a single dialogue or an ensemble scene can greatly impact the mood of the play. During ensemble scenes, the characters must act in a certain way and put on a public facade in front of others. Yet often these characters are actually masking their true feelings. An example of this is when Lady Macbeth says “Look like the’innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t” (1.6.63), she is telling Macbeth that they must keep up appearances and look to be happy their cousin is visiting although they plan on killing him. So in order to keep up these appearances, Lady Macbeth says that under the presence of other characters who they do not want to know about their plan, they must differently.
But during the multiple soliloquies the audience is told what the characters are truly thinking. It allows us to understand truly how they are feeling so that we wont be confused as in to why later on in the play, the characters actions don’t match what they were claiming they believed in the presence of other characters.