In this coursework i will describe how extreme circumstances is shown through language in poems and Macbeth.
In Macbeth he is depressed by his wife’s suicide and this is shown when he says “tomorrow and tomorrow.” This uses repetition to show that Macbeth is counting the days he has to live with his grief.This contrasts to how Macbeth is represented at the start of the play when he is shown as a brave knight this means that through the length of the play the pressure placed upon Macbeth has caused him to become a coward and this makes the reader feel pity for Macbeth after all he has done as it feels like he was forced to throughout the play by his wife and the prophecy to commit the murder of Duncan and Banquo and this is has led to his wife committing suicide from the pressure put on her and this is affecting Macbeth negatively and is why the line saying tomorrow and tomorrow is used because Macbeth is afraid what will happen to him after all that has come to pass.
In a hero the character in the poem is sad because he has the urge to kill and this has destroyed his life-like when he says “three times I had the lust to kill.” This quote uses imagery to create an image of a murderer in a padded cell. The character in the poem is similar to Macbeth as they have both had there lives destroyed by the urge to kill and the pressure surrounding it, however the poem also contrasts to Macbeth as Macbeth has had his life destroyed by the pressure to kill people due to the prophecy whereas the character in the poem has had his life destroyed by the pressure not to kill people due to his mental illness, furthermore they both become depressed however the character in the poem eventually commits suicide whereas Macbeth does not meaning that maybe the characters urge to kill was the urge to kill himself and the demon was his urge to commit suicide and the fourth time it succeeded.
In Macbeth he kills Duncan and is regretful in doing so as he still fells loyalty to Duncan as his king and his friend this is shown when he says “can all of Neptune’s oceans wash this blood from my hands.” This uses hyperbole because Neptune is the god of the sea and by saying this Macbeth is saying that not all the oceans in the world can wash the mental scar of his friends blood on his hands away, and that Macbeth has realized the reality of what he has done and cannot handle the extreme circumstance of what he has done. This is intended by Shakespeare to make the reader think that the old Macbeth from before the prophecy was told to him has broken through and in a way this works as Macbeth’s sanity trying to tell him to stop however he does not listen and he begins to under go a dramatic change from a brave knight like character to becoming cowardly and the exaggerative language is meant to represent a dramatic change in Macbeth’s character.
In a mad girls love song Plath is suffering depression from a loved one leaving them possibly her farther or her lover as they both left in Plath’s life and this has caused her to become depressed and this is shown in the quote “an arbitrary blackness gallops in.” This also use hyperbole to show extreme emotion under the extreme circumstance of her being depressed and this is shown by the quote when it says blackness to represent depression and arbitrary meaning sudden and unexpected like her farther and lover suddenly leaving and the word gallops gives the reader an image of a black horse galloping loudly which is very foreboding meaning that her depression is affecting her as she does not know when it is coming and this troubles Plath. The poem is similar to Macbeth as they both use exaggerative language to show an extreme circumstance and the extreme circumstances they go through cause them both to be depressed.
In Macbeth he sees a dagger just before killing Duncan and he knows that this is a vision caused by his mind this is shown when he says “or art thou but a dagger of the mind,a creation of the heat oppressed brain.” This uses symbolism to show Macbeth’s intentions through the dagger which symbolizes death and this means that Macbeth is intent on murdering Duncan and he is aware that his mind is not entirely stable and the words heat oppressed brain could mean that Macbeth feels oppressed and this could symbolize the pressure he is under from the prophecy and lady Macbeth to kill Duncan and to become king this shows that the pressure Macbeth is under has caused him to develop a mental illness which makes him almost see what he wants or a manifestation of his feeling like the intent to kill Duncan manifests itself into a dagger and i think Shakespeare does this to show the reader Macbeth’s emotions or how he wants to clutch the dagger as he is unwilling to kill Duncan and needs the intent and emotion needed to kill him.
In I felt a funeral in my brain Emily Dickinson presents her mental illness as a funeral in the poem and she describes it as constant this is shown when she says “Kept beating till my mind was going numb.” This uses repetition to show that her depression is constant and draining when she says “my mind was going numb” could mean that her depression has drained her mind of reason and sanity. she also says “beating” to give the reader an image of something pounding her brain. This poem is comparable to Macbeth as both their mental illnesses give them illusions or things that are not there based around their illness such as Macbeth’s intent to kill shows him the image of itself as a dagger whereas Emily Dickinson’s depression gives a manifestation of itself as a funeral and she is aware of this as the first line of the poem is “I felt a funeral in my brain.” I think the reason her depression takes the form of a funeral is because her depression may have been caused by a death of a loved one.
In conclusion both the poems and Macbeth show that language can show extreme emotion and illness through extreme circumstances.
React!