Analyzing a Rhetorical Situation

Macbeth

Macbeth is a play written by William Shakespeare.  William Shakespeare is from England. The story seems like the characters are from England.  The genre of Macbeth is tragedy.  I would say that the tone of the story is very dark and includes immoral actions. The story is told as play with several scenes and acts. The rhetorical situation with this piece of writing would be distinguishing between moral issues and fate.  The writer’s purpose of the work is to display the immoral actions of obtaining victory.  The intended audience would be more mature teenagers or adults.  

Macbeth was a soldier in the army who would later become a king of Cawdor. Macbeth and his friend Banquo were taking a walk one day and came in contact with three witches. The witches informed Macbeth that he would become king one day.  King Duncan was the current thane of Cawdor.  Macbeth ends up winning a war against a rival country and as a result he was able to visit King Duncan.  Later on Macbeth informed his wife, Lady Macbeth, of the witches prophesy. Lady Macbeth was determine to be the queen.  So, Lady Macbeth talks Macbeth into killing his friend Banquo after murdering King Duncan.  Banquo, on the other hand, flees the country due to believing that the plans from the witches could ruin their lives. Macbeth eventually becomes king and goes to war with Macduff, a Scottish Nobleman.  Macduff beheads and kills Macbeth, because he feels that Macbeth should not be king. The son of King Duncan, Prince Malcolm becomes king.

 The issue that seemed to be at stake in this writing is morality. Macbeth was talked into murdering so that he could be king of the throne.  The witches informed him that he could become king of Cawdor, but there was already a king of Cawdor.  The witches could have possibly wanted King Duncan to be removed from the throne. Macbeth was never comfortable with his killing and immoral actions. The encounter with the witches created a conflict between right and wrong. For example, Macbeth knew that King Duncan trusted him due to the superior role he played in defending the country.  Macbeth was thinking about the consequences of killing and the feelings of the people before he killed them.  Macbeth believed that instead of killing the King; he should have been protecting the King. However, he thought the way the witches wanted him to think in order to become the king. The writer shows significance of the issue of immorality in several ways. One way the writer shows significance of what is right and wrong is through Banquo. Banquo knows from the beginning that Macbeth could not become king by free will. Banquo knew that there would be consequences if Macbeth became king of Cawdor, because Cawdor currently had a leader.  Another way is because Macbeth thought about his actions before he acted. If you have to think twice about an action you are observing the outcome.  Macbeth knew that fighting for his country was right, because he was in the army. It seems as if he thought that being in the army justified his action for killing King Duncan and other innocent people.  I feel that by killing, Macbeth’s fate and immoral actions determined that he would eventually be murdered.