Macbeth

Compare the ways in which Shakespeare and Sherriff present Macbeths and Stanhope’s attitude and behaviour under intense pressure in the plays you have studied.
Macbeth was set in the time where honour was very important, and men who believed in loyalty it was a time where they believed in the divine right of kings and that everything had a place in the great chain of being, how God was at the top and the devil and witches were at the bottom; this was what Macbeths time was about and Shakespeare shows us this battle between Good and Evil by soliloquies and his use of language, to show the audience how Macbeths under extreme pressure and what he does to suppress it. When we are introduced to Macbeth he is portrayed as a loyal, ferocious killer who butchers anyone who threatens the King. Shakespeare is already showing the audience Macbeth’s pressure in battle and how the enemy is described as; Shakespeare already makes the audience approve of Macbeth because of his use of language and how he manipulates it to Macbeth’s downfall.
Journeys End however was much more complicated, it was the time of World War 1 and the play is based around Trench Life and Propaganda, how young men were manipulated to go to war based on the posters and advertisements, young men thought war was going to be glorious and great; but it wasn’t, death was a constant companion to those serving in the line, even when no raid or attack was launched or defended against. RC Sherriff was a captain in World War 1, he wrote the play to show the world that what they were advertising in the war was false that is wasn’t glorious or great; it was traumatic and brutal as men of young ages were being told lies. In Act one we don’t meet captain Stanhope we only hear of him through Hardy and Osborne. Hardy says Stanhope is a ‘wash away’ drunk his only comfort is the whiskey he bears in his hands, until we hear of Stanhope’s leadership through Osborne, Stanhope’s second in command. We are not introduced to...