Ibby's English Journal

“Fair is foul, and foul is fair; Hover through the fog and filthy air.” W.S

Shakespeare uses extremely clever language in his plays and texts. He uses it in order to capture his audiences attention and to make them think deeper about what they are reading or watching. He leaves the audience with a cliffhanger after every scene, which makes them want to find out whats going to happen next. Shakespeare was amazing at keeping his audiences anxious and excited during his plays. He was a man that changed the history of literature, and a man who played a big part in the English language that we use today.

A device that Shakespeare uses a lot is dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is the scenario where the audience and a character know something that the other characters don’t. It makes the audience feel more engaged in the play. An example of this is Macbeth’s soliloquy at the near beginning of the play. A quote from this soliloquy is; “Is this a dagger that I see before me, the handle toward my hand.” In this soliloquy, he talks about him having visions of a dagger just floating in front of him. He tries to grab it but he cannot. Only he and the audience know that he is hallucinating. Throughout the whole play Macbeth has visions and gets scared of illusions that he comes across.

Shakespeare challenges his audience and readers intellectually. He leaves the audience with a chance to figure out what’s going to happen for themselves. This makes the play a lot more interesting as you can’t be sure about what’s going to happen next. Macbeth is full of complex stories. When I just started reading the play, I made predictions about what was going to happen in the next scene, and if I’m honest, not many of them were correct.

Another device that Shakespeare uses often is personification. Personification is where an object or thing is described as if it was human. Shakespeare uses this in his own special way. For example “Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak.” Stones can’t move, trees can’t speak, so what does Shakespeare mean by this? It leaves you with a thought. It persuades you to go further back in the play and it makes you want to discover what it could possibly relate to, or even to read on, to see if your answer is revealed further into the play. Reading Shakespeare can be tiring but come to think of it, it’s actually quite good brain exercise. Shakespeare plays mind games with his readers and his audience. What’s unique about him is that he uses devices to put something obvious across to you, in a way where you will need to think hard about it. Here’s another famous personification quote by Shakespeare that i like; “Nor Heaven peep through the blanket of the dark”. Here, Heaven is described as if it was a human being scared of the dark. However, this personification gives away so much about the atmosphere in the play.The energy is dark and scary, that EVEN Heaven is effected.

An additional example of Shakespeare’s use of clever devices is also shown through use of pathetic fallacy. When King Duncan’s death is discovered, Lennox describes; “Some say,the Earth was feverous and did shake” This clearly demonstrates how the natural world reacted to the King’s death.The pathetic fallacy adds to the audiences enjoyment of the drama and therefore encourages them to engage more with the events of the play.

At times Shakespeare brings a rather super natural feel to his plays and texts. He sometimes even puts the story into a whole new context but still describes the Same situation. He does this in order to keep his audience interested and to maintain his originality.

Throughout the entire play, Macbeth had many visions, hallucinations and illusions. One that particularly made me feel uncomfortable was the apparition. The apparition appeared in front of Macbeth eyes, while telling him stuff like “beware Macduff”, “Macbeth shall not come of the throne until the forest moves to Dunsinaine Hill.” One of the worst and most disturbing apparitions was that of a toddler wearing blood-stained robes.

Shakespeare was an extraordinary writer. His importance in the world of literature and in the English language in general is paramount. When I read Macbeth, I realized how even though it was written in Shakespearian English, I still managed to understand everything that was going on. Macbeth was probably the most challenging play i ever encountered and it has tickled my imagination on many levels. I admire the fact that William Shakespeare wrote so many plays during his lifetime and has left such an enormous legacy in terms of the English language as we know it and use it today.

All in all, I really enjoyed reading Macbeth. I’d like to believe that it has improved my English, both verbally and on paper and has definitely encouraged me to read more Plays by William Shakespeare.

” Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.”
Macbeth, Scene III