HOW MACBETH WORKS WITHOUT THE AUDIENCE NOTICING.

HOW MACBETH WORKS WITHOUT THE AUDIENCE NOTICING. Hinchliffe and Frey cite Booth’s analysis of MacBeth as an example of how Shakespeare’s language achieves its effects on the audience by operating below the threshhold of what the audience notices. They write: “For Booth, the greatest tragedy in Macbeth occurs in the audience, in the failure of moral categories that leaves us identifying with the title character despite his repugnant actions.” One of the ways in which Shakespeare makes us sympathetic to MacBeth is speed. Booth says; “In the theatre, speed is good and slowness is bad.” In MacBeth virtuous actions move slowly; evil actions move quickly. Without noticing that this is happening, we are influenced to feelings and judgments that we don’t approve of.