Shakespeare, a well known man of literature, uses many methods to keep his audience interested in his plays. A play which has many of those methods is Macbeth. For example even things like how the characters argue, fight and influence each other is a sort of method for hooking the audience interest as well as keeping them interested. There ar more of these techniques that Shakespeare uses to make his plays so good.

A technique which is used often in the play Macbeth is ‘Soliloquies’. This is when a character says his thoughts aloud to the audience. Also the person which is saying the soliloquy is usually alone with nothing else around to listen. In a way it’s like when speak to yourself so quietly, no-one can hear it. An example of this is in act 2 scene 1. Macbeth can see a dagger but it isn’t real. “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle towards my hand?” I think that this is a part where Macbeth starts to show signs of madness and being thirsty for power – to be the king. This is happening because Lady Macbeth has convinced him so much he can see illusions. This is a soliloquy because a couple lines before the quote in the scene showed that everyone had left the room.

A technique which is used throughout the whole play of Macbeth is ‘dramatic irony’. Dramatic irony is when the audience knows something the characters may now know. An example of this is when there is a group of people plotting to do something that will lead to a disaster. Like when Lady Macbeth are plotting to commit treason. Only he two of them know about this. This technique kind of links to soliloquies because the person or people are revealing a plot to the audience with no one else around. Except soliloquies have only one person. “Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t”. This is showing that Lady Macbeth is kind of saying that it will be alright as long as we cover it up and not get suspected. By flower and serpent it means that act all innocent but inside you are actually horrible and a killer. This is dramatic irony as only Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and the audience would know about this.

Dramatic irony maintains the audiences interest a lot because it may give a feeling that you want to shout out to the actors that they are going to be murdered. Also it makes the audience want to know how the plot turns out afterwards. Is it successful or not? It builds up a lot of tension which keeps everyone alert. In a way it’s like at the end if a TV show where they make some sort of climax to make you watch the next episode. For instance the main character is on the brink of death or a battle is about to commence.

Most likely one of the most important things which keeps to audience interest is simply the characters. Every story needs characters which are good, bad, trouble makers, etc. A large characteristic used in the play Macbeth is how they influence each other. Changing their thoughts, ambitions and making them a completely different person.

At the start of the play, Macbeth is quite a good, loyal soldier. He thought that king Duncan was a great man and stayed loyal to him. Then the three trouble maker witches came in. These three made a prophesy which made Macbeth have his first change of thought. Deep down, he actually wanted to become the king due to the witches telling him he would in the future. “Let not light see my dark and deep desires.” he says in one of his soliloquies. This quote shows his change of mind, It gradually gets worse and worse once he is convinced by Lady Macbeth to kill Duncan. Once he killed king Duncan, Macbeth becomes king and kind of goes on a blood rampage, killing anyone who might threat his crown. He soon does realise this but says in act 3 scene 4 “I am in blood stepp’d in so far, should I wade no more.” This explains that he has killed so many people already, why stop now? There is no going back. This keeps the audience attention because it makes them see how everything can change from a character’s influence on others.

Another thing that was mentioned a bit before is the large theme of ambition. This comes from and is very similar to the sense of influence. In the section before the changes of mind actually all links to ambition. Macbeth wanting to be king then killing all opposing him and Lady Macbeth wanting much more power. This throughout the play is like what leads the play making it more intense. Also it kind of teaches that power isn’t always the way to go and can change you a lot – but not in the right way.

A small part in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, is how it’s written as a script. The language is thought about quite carefully when it was written. You can tell this because the words have a sort of rhythm called the iambic pentameter. It can be said and written de DUM. In a way it’s like your heartbeat. There other ways of writing it too but these are the easiest to say. (when finished, example here) There are these rhythms all the way through the play. This may answer why someone might start talking in their script and then someone else talks and their text is like all the way on the right of the page beside where the first speaker’s text ended. It can mean that the people speaking are close friends or know each other well to recognise each others rhythm easily and almost finish their sentence.  This gives off some interest to the audience because it’s quite cool to know that it’s more than just words.

Another technique used is personification. This is when an object or something abstract is treated or talked to like a real living thing like a human. For example ‘The sky weeps’. The sky can’t actually weeps but it has been ‘personified’. In Macbeth an example for this is in act 2 scene 1 where he sees an imaginary dagger. “The handle towards my hand? Let me clutch thee… Thou mashall’st me the way I was going.”