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What Are The Rhetorical Devices Used In Macbeth

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A first soliloquy from Macbeth is in Act I, Scene 7, beginning with “If it were done when ‘tis done…”. The main theme of this speech is Macbeth’s internal debate about whether or not he should kill Duncan. On one hand, he could kill him, and reach his ambitions and fulfill his prophecy and become king. On the other hand, he likes Duncan first of all, believes it would be morally wrong to kill him, and is afraid of consequences and karma from killing Duncan. In the first part of this soliloquy (I, 7, 1-12), Macbeth is essentially saying “If only I could kill Duncan without consequence”. A first demonstration of this inner debate comes with Macbeth’s repetition of the word done. At the very beginning of this speech, Macbeth says, “If it were …show more content…

He just wants the whole thing to be over, and quickly. The repetition places emphasis upon this, and upon the fact that he is truly considering murdering Duncan to the point where he is envisioning how to do it. Another rhetorical device used in this speech is alliteration. When envisioning the death of Duncan, Macbeth refers to it as “surcease success” (I, 7, 4). Shakespeare uses this alliteration to, when addressing the death of Duncan, make Macbeth sound somewhat like a snake, with the alliteration of s’s. Snakes are often associated with backstabbing and disloyalty, which is exactly what Macbeth was considering being towards Duncan, so that is why Shakespeare would use such alliteration to try and make Macbeth sound like a snake. A 3rd device used in this part of the soliloquy is analogy. Macbeth says, “That we teach bloody instructions, which,being taught, return to plague the inventor”. This is an analogy of the fact that Duncan was the one who taught Macbeth, being a great warrior, how to kill. Therefore, Macbeth is saying what the teacher has taught will come back around and haunt him, meaning Macbeth will be using what Duncan taught him in order to kill

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In Macbeth’s speech in Act 5, Scene 5, he uses repetition to create a grim tone which mirrors the speech’s message surrounding the cyclical nature of life and time. This is seen when he repeats “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,” which illustrates the unfeeling passage of time that continues whether individuals are prepared or not (5.5.19). This also shows the cyclical nature of life and time because by repeating tomorrow shows similarity between the days. Instead of showing the progression of time through three unique phrases, Macbeth deliberately chooses to repeat tomorrow to show how one day comes just the same as the next in a cycle. This monotonous continuation of time also accuses ambition as being a vain human pursuit as, eventually,

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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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While Macbeth is contemplating whether or not to kill Duncan, he thinks about the consequence that will come afterward by stating: “his [Duncan’s] virtues / Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against / The deep damnation of his taking-off” (1.7.18-20). This simile compares the the begging of his goodness to the angels’ compelling speech against all the wrongs that have been done to him. Even though Macbeth eventually is going to kill Duncan, he admits that Duncan is a virtuous king. In his head, he is rationalizing Duncan’s death by stating that Duncan’s good deeds will compensate bloody way of dying. Because Macbeth is still sane, he realizes that killing is not justifiable.

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(Shakespeare 1.3.52-55). Macbeth is influenced by his greed for power to use ruthless actions, in this case to kill Duncan to receive the crown he thinks he needs to earn that power. Overwhelmed by his greed, he is already thinking about the “murder” as he

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Throughout his play Macbeth, Shakespeare utilizes multiple motifs, or recurring subjects, themes, or ideas, that enrich his play and further portray his ideas. He uses the motif of babies, children, and the unborn to compare character actions to children in order to emphasize their weaknesses. This motif is also used to portray the strong bond between parents and children and the lengths people go to uphold this bond. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth, Macbeth is true to King Duncan, however, hearing a prophecy from the witches that he will become king, he kills Duncan to gain the throne. Eventually Macbeth is filled with feeling of paranoia, guilt, and fear which lead to further murders.

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Shakespeare, in Act 5, Scene 5 of his play The Tragedy of Macbeth, portrays time as unfeeling. Shakespeare’s purpose is to make the audience ponder the nature of time and denounce ambition as a vain notion of humanity through repetition and personification. In the speech, Macbeth adopts a grim and weary tone in order to convey the meaninglessness of day to day life and the cyclical nature of time to the Elizabethan audience. In Macbeth’s speech in Act 5, Scene 5, Shakespeare uses repetition to create a grim tone which reflects the speech’s message surrounding the cyclical nature of life and time.

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Leading up to the murder of King Duncan Macbeth seems Indecisive, he can’t seem to make up his mind about the assassination and seems to be battling his thoughts between his ambitions and desires to be king and his loyalty and reputation. Spoken by Macbeth in his soliloquy in Act 1 scene 7 “If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well/ It were done quickly” shows his sense of urgency, he wants to get the murder done ‘quickly’, he’s afraid of the consequences of the murder, after all it is a crime he would have to commit and it would only be natural for him to feel nervous which revealing his paranoia. Furthermore the use of monosyllabic words such as ‘it’, ‘were’ and ‘done’ give the his a fast paced structure which mimics the content of

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The audience can now see his desires as well as his ambition. At this point, Macbeth is still hesitant of revealing his true nature, but the audience gets a peek of what he yearns for. In addition, the witches’ predictions are known to be paradoxical, their predictions are never straightforward; they tend to have different interpretations. Macbeth kills King Duncan to obtain the power he was told he’d get. Despite that, the witches never said to kill King Duncan; they told him he would become king.

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Macbeth is struggling and entangled with the advantage and disadvantage of killing Duncan. Macbeth appears hallucination under the temptation of power: “Mine eyes are made the fools o’th’ other senses, / Or else worth all the reset I see thee still, / And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, / Which was not before. There’s no such thing.

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