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Shakespeare manipulates Macbeths character so that we both feel sympathetic for him
whilst angry at his actions. He does this through use of characters relationships, use of
language and structure. Shakespeare manipulates the way in which the characters
communicate to the reader. The characters feelings and emotions are shown through their
soliloquies and speech. At the beginning of the novel Macbeth has quite a few soliloquies
and we are let know how he is feeling and we are therefore rather close to him, in the
middle, during and after Macbeth has killed King Duncan, Banquo and Macduffs family
there are few soliloquies and we are drawn away from Macbeth and again in the end we
are close to him due to there being many soliloquies again. Macduff is the hero of the
play but we do not hear much speech from him and are distanced from him as a result and
do not feel as much for him as we do for Macbeth even though Macbeth kills so many
people. Characters relationship and interactions give the reader insight into the mind of
the characters and manipulates how the readers respond. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth
have a very loving relationship at the start but they soon drift apart once Macbeth
becomes King, possibly because Lady Macbeth is jealous that she cannot be King herself.
This shows the reader what effects this situation can have on a loving relationship; it also
shows the good side of Macbeth and also Lady Macbeth. You could either see him as
being forced into killing King Duncan by his love for Lady Macbeth or him being
manipulating into killing by her. Either of these would make the reader more sympathetic
towards Macbeth. How other characters praise and denote Macbeth manipulates how the
reader perceives him. At the start he is thought of as a good man because he s praised by
the captain, in the middle and end he is denoted by a few characters including Banquo
when they get suspicious that it may have been Macbeth who killed King Duncan, this
shows us how he people can be good and bad at the same time.
Macbeth is neither pure hero nor pure villain, though no one ever can be. He shows
characteristics of both. He does show remorse for his actions and has many qualities you
can admire in him. Other characters and Shakespeares manipulation of the text help the
reader to form their ideas about the characters and the play. Macbeth is manipulated so
that the reader feels a lot more sympathetic for him despite him having killed so many
innocent people. This is a hard text to scrutinize over due to the playwright being dead so
his reasons for doing the things he did in the way he did cannot be recognized but only
guessed.