The tone expressed throughout the entirety of the play is something I would describe as a mix of poignant and disturbed. In saying this I mean it can be very shocking to a reader and also leave them in a state of despair. Whether the reader is thrown off by the murderous nature of the lead, the obviously mentally insane, or the twist of fate resulting in the death of, well…everybody, they will surely appreciate a nice little kick of gruesome karma at the end. It sounds fun, right? By looking more in depth, we can better understand this tone. Most importantly, the speaker and occasion for Macbeth greatly affect it. Living from 1563 – 1616, William Shakespeare is the speaker and author of many other great tragedies, comedies, histories and pieces of poetry. In this specific work, we see him write with a more bleak tone, but it is only part of his range. For example, he writes with a happier tone in his comedies and some of his poetry. However, he retains his dark composure for a majority of his writing such as; Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and a few of his deeper sonnets. Consequently, all of his writing has an aspect of cynicism. For example, in Macbeth Shakespeare expresses his pessimistic views on life by Macbeth’s monologue about how pointless life is after his wife has died. He believes life is a tale told by idiots. For the occasion, we see the author inspired by the turn of the monarchy resulting in King James I, who just happened to love witch-hunts. So Shakespeare writes a nice little tragedy about witches and fate, then he takes it to Scotland. To Shakespeare, the real Macbeth was a historical figure whose conquests may have been a little too boring, so he wrote a better story: a legend. We may never know the exact inspiration behind our fictional Macbeth, but by combining the tone and historical events we have a pretty good idea. King James I is who Shakespeare was ultimately
The tone expressed throughout the entirety of the play is something I would describe as a mix of poignant and disturbed. In saying this I mean it can be very shocking to a reader and also leave them in a state of despair. Whether the reader is thrown off by the murderous nature of the lead, the obviously mentally insane, or the twist of fate resulting in the death of, well…everybody, they will surely appreciate a nice little kick of gruesome karma at the end. It sounds fun, right? By looking more in depth, we can better understand this tone. Most importantly, the speaker and occasion for Macbeth greatly affect it. Living from 1563 – 1616, William Shakespeare is the speaker and author of many other great tragedies, comedies, histories and pieces of poetry. In this specific work, we see him write with a more bleak tone, but it is only part of his range. For example, he writes with a happier tone in his comedies and some of his poetry. However, he retains his dark composure for a majority of his writing such as; Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and a few of his deeper sonnets. Consequently, all of his writing has an aspect of cynicism. For example, in Macbeth Shakespeare expresses his pessimistic views on life by Macbeth’s monologue about how pointless life is after his wife has died. He believes life is a tale told by idiots. For the occasion, we see the author inspired by the turn of the monarchy resulting in King James I, who just happened to love witch-hunts. So Shakespeare writes a nice little tragedy about witches and fate, then he takes it to Scotland. To Shakespeare, the real Macbeth was a historical figure whose conquests may have been a little too boring, so he wrote a better story: a legend. We may never know the exact inspiration behind our fictional Macbeth, but by combining the tone and historical events we have a pretty good idea. King James I is who Shakespeare was ultimately