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Examples Of Figurative Language In Macbeth

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In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the tragic hero delivers a soliloquy (I.vii.1-28) in which he reveals his tragic flaw as he internally battles his consciousness, and debates the consequences of his future actions. Macbeth begins with an alliteration and continues to use this literary device throughout the speech. In lines 1-2 and 4, the tragic hero uses alliterative phrases such as “surcease success” (4) and hard to say phrases like “If it were done whet ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were done quickly”(1-2) when describing the difficulty for him to commit the murder of King Duncan. The use of these tenacious expressions show that just like they are inconvenient to say, it must be much more than just a battle of morality. Macbeth persistently brawls his interior battle of values and emotions, to deliver the chief results without receiving any harsh consequences. …show more content…

Macbeth is worried that the people’s “tears shall drown the wind” (25) after they receive the news of King Duncan’s death. The use of this metaphor can show that even if he isn’t persecuted for the crime, his future subjects will still not subconsciously commend him. No matter how good he may be, the residents will only see him as a “replacement” for the virtuous king they had, therefore their tears will fill a constant of nature, the wind. Additionally, the caesura in this line emphasizes that the opinions and the way the people view him as king is extremely important to his confidence. Macbeth ends his grand soliloquy by revealing his tragic flaw which will allow him to commit the treacherous regicide. The protagonist explains

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