How Does Shakespeare Create Fear and Tension In Act II, Scenes I and II, Of Macbeth Essay Example

disguise".The period in which the play was performed nearly everyone believed in heaven and hell, and they lived in fear of eternal damnation, a punishment of witchcraft and demonic acts. People who went to see "Macbeth" saw in the play signs of two people demonically possessed. As we go into Act II Scene I Macbeth and Banquo meet three weird sisters who prophesise that Macbeth would be "Thane of Cawdor" and "King hereafter". Macbeth then tells his wife, Lady Macbeth, of the witches' prophecy and his coronation as the "Thane of Cawdor".Now Duncan, King of Scotland, is coming to stay at Macbeth's castle to celebrate their victory in battle.

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are plotting to kill Duncan as Macbeth is next in line to the throne. Shakespeare opens Act II Scene I on the dead of midnight, the point at which, all evils things can come into the world. Banquo is very nervous and on edge. He is talking to his son, about not being able to sleep because he was thinking of the weird sisters' prophecy as they said that Banquo's son would one day become king.Banquo is very defensive and on his guard as Macbeth comes into the room with a servant, "Give me my sword- who's there" (Act II Scene I Line 9), he hastily asks for his sword and adds fear and tension to the scene from the start because Banquo thinks people may be after him because they know his children shall be Kings. Macbeth and Banquo immediately start talking about the three weird sisters' prophecy; Macbeth is quite tense and dismissive as if he is trying to get

somewhere.

The fear and apprehension grows as Macbeth manages to get away from Banquo, to attend to his evil deed.At the end of Scene I in Macbeth's soliloquy he shows he is in a sort of trance or deranged state of mind and is talking to himself rapidly about dark and horrible things, such as "Tarquin" a roman prince who used to go out at night and rape women as if he is hyping himself up to kill Duncan as he is having second thoughts. Macbeth begins to question his senses as if he believes he is going mad, he even calls his brain "Heat-oppressed" during the times the first sign of madness was supposedly a raised temperature.Macbeth has all these horrible visions in his mind as if he is thinking about all the bad things he could do to Duncan "nature seems dead and wicked dreams abuse the curtained sleep" (Act II Scene I Line 50). Towards the end of his soliloquy he speaks of the stones talking to people for he says, "thy very stones pray of my whereabouts" (Act II Scene I Line 58), giving up Macbeth as the guilty party.

Shakespeare personifies the stones as it makes them seem human which adds a darker effect to the soliloquy.As a modern director during this part of the scene I would have Macbeth in the centre of the stage right at the very front, so the audience could see his facial expressions. I would have his face covered in darkness to give him the look as if he is starting to turn schizophrenic as one side is thinking darker thoughts to the other.

When the bell rings in the background it is sort of a wake up call to him and hypes him up as he shouts some fighting talk to Duncan "the bell invites me.Hear it not Duncan for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or to hell", (Act II Scene I Line 62-64) he personifies the bell in this small piece as a bell couldn't invite someone and during the period a bell ringing was a ritual when someone had died, making the scene more scary as there was no sound before the bell apart from Macbeth speaking.

I believe Shakespeare took the decision to have Duncan's murder happen off stage to create more tension because you don't see it happen Macbeth could have got the wrong person, and the whole thing could fall in on him.At the start of (Act II Scene II) Lady Macbeth is talking about her part and drugging the "possets" of the guards. Macbeth enters with the bloody daggers and is very wary but Lady Macbeth quickly turns very confident and happy when he is back until she finds out he brought the daggers back with him "Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready; he could not miss 'em" (Act II Scene II Line 11-12). Macbeth is very guilty and struck by fear, he is asking about whether there was any noise to be heard, but there was only the screech of an owl which can be quite a scary sound in the dead silence of the night.

Then stichomythia is introduced which is a lot of alternating speeds of response to each other as if there is

a lot of tension between the two, they are kind of having a small argument Macbeth "When" Act II Scene II Line 17 Lady Macbeth "Now" (Act II Scene II Line 18) Macbeth "As I descended" (Act II Scene II Line 19). Macbeth is hit with guilt all of a sudden on line 24 when we get him starting to talk about sleep and God as he fears being damned to hell.He hears two men wake because one cried "murder" (Act II Scene II Line 25) in his sleep "but they did say their prayers and addressed them again to sleep" (Act II Scene II Line 26-28) He goes on to say that "one cried "god bless us" (Act II Scene II Line 29) and "amen" the other" (Act II Scene II Line 29) but he could not repeat the phrase due to his dark deed. He is scared to say the words as he is consumed with guilt.

Macbeth starts talking about not being able to sleep, as he murdered Duncan in his sleep, and we get antithesis' of sleep, " the innocent sleep" and "sore labours bath" (Act II Scene II Lines 39 and 41).We also get this very powerful line, "Glamis hath murdered sleep" and " therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more" creating tension and fear of something that is bigger and more powerful than us wreaking vengeance on Macbeth mentally, now there are a lot of different images of sleep because, "Macbeth does "murder sleep" (Act II Scene II Line 39), Shakespeare says that there is an "innocent sleep" (Act II Scene II Line 39) which ironically comes out first as

Macbeth shall never have an innocent sleep again, and there are the sleep's of, "sore labour's bath" (Act II Scene II Line 41) and "balm of hurt minds" (Act II Scene II Line 42) I believe the "sore labour" was the murder of Duncan and the "hurt mind" is Macbeth's, but he shall never be able to bathe and balm his hurt mind as the guilt will never allow him to sleep.In the next section of the play from line 47 Lady Macbeth tries to bolster Macbeth's ego and manipulates him to act innocent as Macbeth is in a very child like mentality due to his sudden madness, "Still it cried, "sleep non more" to all the house" (Act II Scene II Line 44). In this moment Lady Macbeth quickly takes charge, basically saying what is done, is done, then goes back and implicates the grooms.Macbeth suddenly sees Duncan's blood as permanent and says that all the oceans could never wash off the blood, or the blood would fill the oceans "will all great Neptune's ocean was this blood clean from my hands? " (Act II Scene II Line 63-64). Again Lady Macbeth takes charge telling him to apply his nightgown and be seen as "watchers" (Act II Scene II Line 74) in the horrific incident, she manipulates him again as if he is under the influence of some narcotic, like a witch's potion, which renders him useless without a command.

At first there is a knocking that only Macbeth can hear as if it is something to do with his mental state, but further on Lady Macbeth hears it as well like she is

starting to go mad also.The very last line Macbeth has a lot of regret wishing that Duncan would awake and everything would be fine by saying "wake Duncan with thy knocking: I would thou couldst" (Act II Scene II Line 77). During the play a director in the modern day would have a field day as it is so easy to create fear and tension in a live theatre. During the whole play I would always have the lights on very dim to add darkness and mystery to play. During the performance I would not use any special effects when Macbeth is going mad like when he sees the dagger as the performance would be more genuine and believable if only he can see it, I would do the same with the knocking at the end of Act II Scene II so as if they are going crazy and making the audience definitely believe that that is what is happening.For the sounds I would have Duncan being killed of stage just the audience can hear the plunging of the dagger into his chest cavity, the a dim spotlight on the stage with a dead Duncan sprawled out on the floor, then it would change to a panting Macbeth bloody and scared head down so you cannot see his face.

For the props I would make the dagger beautiful and mystical as if forged by witchcraft, like its evil but you wouldn't believe anything so beautiful could do any harm. Even though all this could not be done in Shakespeare's time as plays would be during the day or early evening, although Shakespeare's stage directions are

so precise and to the point.