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Literary Devices In Macbeth

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Shakespeare, in the Tomorrow Speech in Act 5, Scene 5 of his play The Tragedy of Macbeth, sheds light on Macbeth’s increasingly negative view towards human existence. Shakespeare’s purpose is to express how vain human ambition can be. Through the use of metaphor and repetition, he assumes a grim, wearied tone in order to allow his audience to, on some level, understand and relate to the hopeless feelings of Macbeth. Through the use of metaphor in Macbeth’s speech, Shakespeare creates a despondent tone to portray the futility of ambition. Shakespeare’s description of life as a “walking shadow” emphasizes Macbeth’s sense of hopelessness, implying that if life, like a shadow, is intangible and only an illusion, anything accomplished in it also …show more content…

Towards the beginning of the speech, the line, “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,” demonstrates how an awareness of the cold endlessness of time is beginning to weigh on Macbeth (5.5.19). Just as tomorrows march on with little change from one to the next, so too has Macbeth’s life continued with little change of any permanent worth. Despite the fact that Macbeth’s ambitions guided him to secure the throne for himself by murdering Duncan, he was never able to secure his happiness but was instead drawn deeper and deeper into a reiterating cycle of violence that slowly wore him down. Attempting to eliminate one threat to his new royal status, he would commit further murder, only to discover yet another person who obstructed his way or endangered his position. However, as Macbeth is aware, his actions to protect himself never managed to address the perpetuation of Banquo’s line or the opposition from Macduff, which are the core threats to not only Macbeth’s own power but also that of his descendants. The perception that, because of this, he has been unable to make any significant progress in bringing his situation under his control leaves Macbeth feeling weary of trying to do so and disenchanted with life. By using repetition to portray time as a never-ending cycle that drives those who try to alter it to exhaustion,

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Macbeth is a well trained soldier who seems like he’d be a great leader and lots of people look up to him which makes him powerful. “All hail Macbeth, Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, be king hereafter”(Act 1, Scene 1). This quote is showing what Macbeth will become in the future and why people will respect him and his power. People are too scared to stand up to King Macbeth because they are afraid of what he’ll do and the confidence he has with his power is dangerous. “The power of man for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth”(Act 4, Scene 1).

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Molding Macbeth Macbeth goes through serious changes in many versions of his story. Although different variations are produced, most of them stick to the original story line from the Macbeth play book written by Shakespeare. In this story, Macbeth was pointed towards many challenges; such as murder, mental health, narcissism, and madness. Macbeth is molded into this new character throughout the story line, becoming different with every scene.

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In Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Macbeth, he utilizes various techniques in order to develop the theme of negative consequences when one’s ambition gets out of control. Though usage of metaphors and diction, Shakespeare is able to weave the theme into the core of the play while having it remain an interesting story. One of Shakespeare’s most notable skill as the world’s most famous playwright, is his almost impeccable ability to use figurative language to convey a scene. Macbeth is a prime example of his masterful command of the English language.

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1149 Words | 5 Pages

After Macbeth finds out about Lady Macbeth's death he begins to think more about life, because he is sad and this is shocking news to him. In Tomorrow's Squlicy he states. “ Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day”(Line 10-20). Macbeth is saying that life is boring and today was like yesterday and will be the same tomorrow.

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1155 Words | 5 Pages

“To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day”, the repetition and personification used shows the significance is to show Macbeth 's discontent with life. Life no longer has meaning, now that the love of his life is dead. This also shows he doesn’t realize the contribution she made into making him a heartless killer and that now he is possibly oblivious to it all. Macbeth at the beginning was valued and was genuinely a noble man, where as to this point he has let himself be misguided to become a man of destruction now called a “tyrant, bloodier villain, dead butcher”. Macbeth refuses to take responsibility for all the pain he has caused and he doesn’t want to die without a fight, although this is the finish to all of Macbeths destruction he does not want to kill Macduff “Of all men else I have avoided thee; my soul is too much charged with blood of thine already” this metaphor used is showing how he already has so much blood on his hands, he doesn’t need any more, this can be seen as slight integrity but he still goes on to fight even though its already known of his deeds, “They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, but bear like I must fight the course”.

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522 Words | 3 Pages

In William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, Macbeth truthfully expresses that life is ultimately repetitive and meaningless towards the actions that lead to death. Claiming that life is short and easily extinguished from his reaction towards Lady Macbeth’s apparent suicide. Shakespeare applies rhetorical elements to emphasize Macbeth’s responsiveness to the concept of life and death. Initially, Shakespeare commences with repetition of the word “tomorrow” thrice to accentuate the hopeless future Macbeth perceives.

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1920 Words | 8 Pages

( Both individuals realize that time is moving on ) . Macbeth’s world comes crashing down when he hears of Lady Macbeth’s death and realizes the one thing he does not have is time. Macbeth is surrounded by an army while his wife passed away and he is vulnerable as he cannot do anything as everything hit him at once. As Macbeth delivers his soliloquy there is a heavy tone as he starts “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” ( Shakespeare V.V.19 ). The repetition signifies the emptiness he feels and presents the idea that each new day is just like the previous one and nothing will change as time moves forward.

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919 Words | 4 Pages

In Macbeth, Shakespeare writes about a man named Macbeth, who has a very strong ambition to be the the king of Scotland. His credulousness led him into believing the prophecy from the three witches without thinking rigorously. Because of this prophecy, Macbeth is willing to do everything he can to gain the throne, even to the extreme of murdering someone. Shakespeare uses syntax, similes, and personification to convey the evolution of Macbeth’s insanity.

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The Tragedy of Macbeth written by William Shakespeare deals with the concepts of power, ambition, evil and fear. One particular scene in the play seems to deal with more of the concepts of fear and power, as well as feeling nothing. In Act 5, Scene 5, Shakespeare uses differing types of figurative language to add to the somber tone and dark nature of the scene/play. In this scene, Macbeth is preparing to go to war with the people who were once on his side.

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1277 Words | 6 Pages

Sean Smith Mrs. Anthony Senior English 8 March 2018 The Danger of Ambition In Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth”, the author proposes a perpetual loop of struggle through his use of fate and imagery of the character’s deaths in order to express the consequences for one’s actions if they are foolish enough to make these decisions. “The Tragedy of Macbeth” is a uniquely portrayed concept of fate, internal struggle, and paradox; the story depicts a human with intentions to receive power.

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808 Words | 4 Pages

Shakespeare, in his tragedy, “Macbeth,” illustrates an intriguing narrative in which a man named Macbeth receives equivocations from witches telling him that he will become the king, sending him spiraling down a path of madness and bloodshed. Shakespeare's purpose is to relay the ideas that unchecked ambition leads to a person’s downfall and to elaborate on the vanity of human ambition through the actions of the characters. In act 5, scene 5, he assumes a somber tone through the utilization of alliteration and symbolism in order to appeal to similar feelings and experiences in his Elizabethan audience. In Macbeth’s speech from Act V, scene 5, Shakespeare evokes a bleak tone through the use of alliteration which exemplifies the theme of the

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1087 Words | 5 Pages

Lady Macbeth plays a key part in driving Macbeth’s motivations and encourages Macbeth to overcome his strong sense of guilt and take action on the prophecies. Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth that he is “green” (I.VII.40) and “a coward” (I.VII.46) and that he resembles the proverbial “poor cat”. (I.VII.48) The willingness of Lady Macbeth to reach the epitome of betrayal is displaced that heightens the understanding of the overpowering and strong nature of Lady Macbeth as well as the deep and murderous motivations she wishes to impose on her husband. Shakespeare exposes to the audience to the persuasive and emotive techniques Lady Macbeth uses to manipulate and drive Macbeth's motivations. This

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814 Words | 4 Pages

The “tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” speech is considerably well known from Macbeth, but sadly for dark reasons. “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” is one of many quotes that show a hopeless outlook on life. Macbeth has lived through difficult experiences through his life; murders, betrayal, and, most recently, the death of his wife. Macbeth learned seconds before giving this speech that his wife has committed suicide, which contributes an even larger sense of hollowness. Macbeth makes strongly morbid personifications to life; he essentially comments that all days creep by slowly and never fast enough, and still none of these days matter because the end result will always be death.

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1036 Words | 5 Pages

Macbeth’s soliloquy in Act 5 Scene 5 may be Shakespeare’s way of telling the audience that no matter how we choose to live our destiny, fate could not be changed and nothing would matter in the end. Macbeth says “Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow/ Creeps in this petty pace from day to day/ To the last syllable of recorded time” (Act 5 Scene 5 lines 19-21) and “All our yesterdays have lighted fools/ The way to dusty death” (Act 5 Scene 5 lines 22-23). The imagery of all the “tomorrows” and “yesterdays” in the soliloquy tells the audience that we should not pursue our own desires without recognizing our insignificance and triviality. The soliloquy writes “to the last syllable of recorded time;/ And all our yesterdays have lighted fools/ The way to dusty death” (Act 5 Scene 5 lines 21-23), meaning the past acts as a guide on the path to death. It implies that since time is displaced into “broken syllables” and the past is disconnected into fragments.

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1013 Words | 5 Pages

Celia Beyers Tinti Period 1/5 12 April 2015 Literary Analysis: Macbeth In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, he presents the character of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is shown, as a character that schemes into making rebellious plots. She reveals the desire for wanting to lose her feminine qualities in order to be able to gain more masculine ones.

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