How do generic conventions inform your understanding of Macbeth? Essay

The tragedy of Macbeth is his Vaulting ambition, which oerleaps itself and fallson thother. In this famous play, William Shakespeare positions the earshot to feel pity towards the protagonist involved, and potentially the protagonist is the tragic hero. But in the play, Macbeth, how does he do this? Shakespeare positions us to feel pity for Macbeth, the protagonist, by using generic, dramatic and theatrical conventions such as soliloquies, hamartia and symbolism. My understanding of the play Macbeth, is shaped by Shakespeares use of generic conventions to represent the characters inner agitation and by means of this, their tragic flaws. Specifically, soliloquies are used to reveal Macbeth and Lady Macbeths inner turbulence as they lose their sanity for power.The first soliloquy in Macbeth is said by Lady Macbeth which reveals her inner turmoil almost the letter she receives from Macbeth, as she worries that he may not be slopped enough to assassinate Duncan, and through and thr ough this her tragic flaw is revealed . As the witches prediction closely Macbeth to bring into being Thane of Glamis and Cawdor comes true, she is lured into the trap of believing that he will become mightiness however worries that he is too much of a coward to make it happen. roleplay 1 Scene 5, line 6, Yet do thy soulfulnessality It is too full o draw of human nature. Its evident that through the term omilk of human nature symbolises the milk of a human and the still kind of human that produces milk is a female. Milk only comes from the female when she is a mother and mothers are traditionally nurturing and kind. So Lady Macbeth is saying that Macbeth is quite powder-puff in the way of his kindness.Furthermore, Lady Macbeth thinks Macbeth doesnt have the ruthless nature handle she does to strike sharp at a first opportunity to have power and even though he regards power, his nature is too kind to be king in the evil way that she plans to do it. When receiving news tha t the king is going to stay at the Macbeth castle, she feels she must be the one to kill Duncan in order for Macbeth to become king and her to be queen, however in the soliloquy after she received the news, she talks to the spirits about how willing she is to do the deed to get the power and seize the throne. Although at the same time, it touches on the bag of masculinity, tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me hither, Act 1 Scene 5, line 31. Come to my cleaning ladys breasts, And take my milk for gall, Act 1 Scene 5, line 38.Both quotes suggest the polar sex, unsex me here, by changing sex Lady Macbeth feels she would be more masculine, than she is now, as a man. With the second quote mentioning milk, this suggests womanhood, represented by milk and breasts, symbolising nurture and compassion and she says she has this as well as her ruthlessness but wants to be more cruel, of direct cruelty Make dense my blood Act 1 Scene 5, line 33. When all of her plans and inner turmoil is reveale d to us, her hamartia all at once becomes clearer her flaw is that she is extremely power hungry and will do anything to feed it, however this results in her gloaming as she turns insane from her guilty conscience of manipulating Macbeth, simply because she is too cowardice to do her own business.Macbeths first soliloquy in the play portrays him to be his sane self, making the agonizing decision of whether he should go through with the evil deed of assassinating poove Duncan. In his decision he puts into account King Duncans qualities, this Duncan, hath borne his faculties so meek, Act 1 Scene 7, line 16, and his loyalty and faith towards the king, He is here in bought trustas I am his kinsmanthen as his host, who should against his murderer shut the door, not bear the knife himself Act 1 Scene 7, line 12, which represents the kind nature of Macbeth, not deficient to go through with seizing the throne by murdering Duncan because he likes Duncan as he is a strong and humble lea der. He also describes that his death would be showered with, angels, trumpet-tongued, Act 1 Scene 7.Angels are a representation of heaven and heaven is symbolised as good which means Duncan will go to heaven if he dies because of his goodness. This reminds us how severe and alarming it is to kill a human being just for power and Macbeth realises this also, this is seen through the use of language, Bloody instructions and our poisoned chalice and deep damnation and through this, an image of darkness is do which makes it clear to us that Macbeth knows what he could do is wrong and if he does it he will be forever in a world of sin. At the same time, the one only reason Macbeth wants to proceed in the deed is his ambition to become powerful, but only vaulting ambition, which oerleaps itself and fallson thother. Act 1 Scene 7, line 27. The only thing motivating him is his ambition, however Macbeth knows ambition could lead him on towards disaster, (coincidentally it did) thence sub sides not to go along with his wifes plans.Although after his soliloquy when he admits to Lady Macbeth he doesnt want to carry on with the plan, Lady Macbeth threatens Macbeth that he will no longer be a man in her eyes but a coward and that she might never love him again if he doesnt kill Duncan. This affects Macbeths inner turmoil because as a man, he like to show his bravery and have courage and by going against his wife could damage his masculinity and so carries on with the play. My understanding of Macbeths tragic flaw, as evidenced in this soliloquy, is that he doesnt want to damage his pride, his masculinity or his ambition and this, then, leads to his downfall.The next soliloquy used by Macbeth reveals to the audience that the pinch of killing the king is finally taking a turn on his mind. In his speech, Macbeth makes accusations of seeing a dagger, identical to his, in front of him however he becomes confused when he cant decide what is happening. At first, when the dagge r appears he believes it to be a false creation which is a hallucination, as he has already tried to grab it but failed, caused by a Heat- oppressd brain, in other words, hes ill.Then just after saying this, he believes that its something different, thou marshallst me the way that I was going, Act 2 Scene 1. The meaning for this quote is that the dagger is pointing him in the centering that he is going and this symbolises and proves that his decision to kill the king is already set in motion. The direction of the dagger may have been just his mind but could have been witchcraft also3Witchcraft celebrates, Pale Hecates offerings, Since Macbeth already believes the witches, there is no other reasons not to disagree with them. Macbeths tragic flaw of his self-pride of masculinity, ambition and lust for power ends up in his downfall of hallucination from confusion and stress and later on in the play he metaphorically plummets to his death as he loses control of his paranoia. Shakespe are positions the audience, with monologues like this, to see that Macbeth is stressed, scared and confused about the act he is about to commit, this slowly leads him to lose his sanity just so he can please his wife, achieve his final stage of ambition and protect his pride and masculinity.My understanding of Macbeth is greatly shaped by generic conventions such a soliloquies. Throughout the play soliloquies were used to explain the main characters inner turmoil. Macbeth appeared to be a power greed murder that stopped at nothing to be the king of Scotland. However through soliloquies, it was clear to me that this was his hamartia and his tragic flaw, which made him this way, was that he was ambitious, proud of his masculinity and courage. So when Lady Macbeth threatens him and label him a coward for not killingDuncan, he want does it to protect his pride. This makes us pity him as he had no choice and becomes insane from the paranoia and guilty conscience. In my opinion, I think Shakespeare had a message of object of Macbeth and that was to show the audience that ambition and desire is destructive and no matter how much a person wants power, they should never let it overcome them.