Shakespeare - Artisan of the Atmosphere in Macbeth :: Free Essay Writer

Shakespe atomic number 18 - Artisan of the Atmosphere in Macbeth Shakespeargon in his tragedy Macbeth removes any doubt that he is a true artist at developing atmosphere. Let us examine his construction of the atmosphere in this tragedy. Lily B. Campbell in her volume of criticism, Shakespe atomic number 18s Tragic Heroes Slaves of Passion, explains how the atmosphere of threat and fear is built up Macbeth is, however, not only a study of fear it is a study in fear. The sounds and images in the play combine to add the atmosphere of terror and fear. The incantation of the witches, the bell that tolls while Duncan dies, the cries of Duncan, the cries of the women as Lady Macbeth dies, the owl, the knocking at the gate, the wild horses that ate each other, the story, the quaking of the earth - all of these are the habitual accompaniments of the willfully fearful in literature. (238-39) Charles Lamb in On the Tragedies of Shakespeare comments on the atmosphere surrounding the play The state of sublime emotion into which we are elevated by those images of night and horror which Macbeth is made to utter, that solemn prelude with which he entertains the time till the bell shall strike which is to call him to murder Duncan, - when we no longer read it in a book, when we have given up that vantage-ground of abstraction which reading possesses over seing, and come to see a man in his bodily shape before our eyes actually preparing to commit a muder, if the acting be true and impressive as I have witnessed it in Mr. Ks performance of that part, the painful anxiety about the act, the natural longing to prevent it while it yet seems unperpetrated, the too close pressing semblance of reality, give a pain and an uneasiness . . .. (134) In Fools of Time Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy, Northrop Frye shows how the atmosphere is altered for the better at the end of the play This theme is at its clearest where we are most in sympathy with the nemesis. Thus at the end o f Macbeth, after the proclamation the time is free, and of promises to make reparations of Macbeths tyranny Which would be planted newly with the time, in that location will be a renewal not only of time but of the whole rhythm of nature symbolized by the word measure, which includes both the medicine of the spheres and the dispensing of human justice .