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Essay On The Use Of Animals In Macbeth

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Use Of Animals In The Elizabethan Age Compared To In The Play During the Elizabethan Age animals were used for several purposes, including entertainment, hunting for food, work or superstitions. During this time animals were only seen as for their labour and although animals can be useful for these purposes during the Elizabethan age it never crossed the people's minds, that the animals have human like character. Unlike in the Elizabethan age it is believed that through Shakespeare's work that he did not believe in the ways animals were treated. In the play “Macbeth” Shakespeare uses a large amount of animal imagery to signify the connection between human and animals. In the play “Macbeth” Shakespeare uses animal imagery that can be compared …show more content…

The Elizabethan people would use the animals for entertainment such as, bear-baiting which is where the people would gather in a stadium, where a wild bear is chained to a post where they release dogs to attack the bear for the people to watch. During the Elizabethan times this form of entertainment was very popular and always brought a large crowd. These types of games were popular even with Queen Elizabeth I, it was popular for the gambling and the thrill of watching the vicious blood bath fight. In most cases they would use bears but bulls were also used during this time for similar sport. In the play, Shakespeare uses animal imagery to show the downfall of Macbeth. In 5.7 Macbeth says “ They have tied me to a stake. I cannot fly, but bear like, i must fight the course”. This use of imagery shows that Macbeth is strong and will fight although he knows he will die. This is a major turning point for Macbeth where it is clear to see how much Macbeth has changed throughout the play. He becomes fearless where before he was nervous and wouldn’t have been able to fight as he is about to do. This animal imagery is a great line to be able to see the comparison between the Elizabethan age and “Macbeth”. Although bear-baiting was a very popular sport to go view, there are also other sports that were popular sports including dog and horse racing, and hunting. Other sports were more popular in the upper

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