Machbeth

In this essay I am going to write about one of the passages in the play Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare. The passage is in act 4 scene 3 page 77. I will write about the content and context of the passage, the purpose, the tone, the effects and any literary devices used in it.

Body

What led to this scene is that the three witches and their queen Hecate meet with Macbeth. They show him three apparitions, which tell him that he should beware Macduff. After that Macbeth decides that he should kill Macduff and sends some murders to kill him. They don’t find him, but they find all his family and kill them all. Then Malcolm and Macduff talk and that’s where this scene comes. After this Ross tells Macduff about the murder of his family. Mainly after this what happens is that the army marches to Dunsinane and war starts. The passage talks mainly about King Edward. It says that he has supernatural powers, which is that he can heal the disease Evil. It also says that all the other Kings before him have had supernatural powers too and that it has been in England since long time.

Shakespeare wrote this passage for some purposes. One of them is to show that Macbeth is a foiled character to King Edward. This is shown mainly in the whole passage, because the passage talks about the King healing people where Macbeth is killing them. King Edward is has this power to heal the people from bad things and make them happy. Macbeth is exactly the opposite of him. He is killing many people, because he feels unsafe and wants to stay king as long as possible. It is also shown that King Edward wants to heal Scotland from the evil which is Macbeth. Shakespeare wrote the play Macbeth, to King James, so he wanted to satisfy him by writing this passage. In the passage it says the King Edward was good, who is one of the ancestors of King James. It also says that all the Kings in England have supernatural powers and this means that King James would have them too.

The tone of this passage could be described in two words. The first one is boastful, the whole passage talks about the king and all the good things that he does. Macduff and Malcolm talk about him in a every good way, in a boastful