Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Macbeth by William Shakespeare                                                

Macbeth by William Shakespeare 

Point of View

 Macbeth is written in the third person objective.  The characters do not speak directly to the audience but often give soliloquies.  Through the dialogues of the characters, Shakespeare’s ideas of fate and free will can be seen.  Focus generally follows Macbeth and sometimes other characters that affect Macbeth.  The witches occasionally enter the play as a means of foreshadow.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare 

Form, Structure, and Plot

 Macbeth is organized into 5 acts.  Each act contains several scenes.  The play starts with a prologue scene given by the three witches who occasionally appear between major scenes to foreshadow or comment on events.  Shakespeare has some offstage action in several points in the story.  He uses offstage action for Duncan’s murder and Lady Macbeth’s death.  The single plot is chronological and easy to follow.  There are no flashbacks but there are some dream scenes, for example Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking.  The attention is generally paid to Macbeth as the focus follows him through the play.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Exposition - 

The exposition is very vague since the characters are introduced throughout the first part of the play.  It can be considered that the entire first act is the exposition.

Initial incident - The three witches start the play off with a prophecy that Macbeth will become king and that Banquo’s children will become kings after Macbeth.

Rising action - The rising action is when some of the prophecies are coming true and Lady Macbeth is trying to convince Macbeth to kill Duncan.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Crisis / Climax -

 The climax is the actual murder of Duncan.

Falling action - The falling action is all the events occurring after the murder where Macbeth tries to hide his crime and cement his position as king by killing other would-be kings.  Lady Macbeth goes insane.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Denouement -

 Lady Macbeth dies and Macbeth is executed.  Malcolm becomes the King.

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