Macbeth (end of Act 3)

In Act 1 Scene 6 line 60, when Lady Macbeth is talking to Macbeth about her ideas, she says “Your face, my thane, is as a book where men may read strange matters.” This sentence is an example of a simile that was used during the original Elizabethan language. Lady Macbeth says that to Macbeth when she was convincing Macbeth to kill Duncan to gain power in order to become king. She manipulates Macbeth by saying these types of things that would convince Macbeth into believing that he can do it and that he has all the power and no consequence would be left.

Another example would be “Look like th’innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t.” (1.6.63-64) Lady Macbeth continues to persuade Macbeth into killing Duncan and she pushes his thinkings more and more to murdering the king. He is being peer pressured from Lady Macbeth.

The last example would be “And live a coward in thine own esteem, letting I dare not wait upon I would, Like the poor cat i’th’adage.” (1.7.43-45) She tries to rile him up by using his own weakness against him. She calls him a coward and is trying to hurt his pride by saying that he doesn’t have the courage to murder the king. Lady Macbeth is very cruel and ruthless. She gets what she wants and doesn’t care about others and just her.

During the Elizabethan times, they use a lot of dramatic ironies and foreshadowing for play writings. As provided above, they also used many similes. Shakespeare also included many foreshadowing and many soliloquies throughout the play. He uses these types of techniques to hide the real meaning behind the words.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *