"Shakespeare creates interesting characters that an audience can relate to." Discuss with reference to themes and dramatic techniques in Macbeth.

This is an interesting question, because on the one hand
you could argue that it is impossible for a modern day audience to relate to an ancient
Scottish lord and witches and other such characters. However, I would want to answer
this question by the way in which Shakespeare presents this characters, as far distant
as they are through time and geography, as being profoundly human, and being subject to
the same kinds of desires, hopes and wishes as we have today, which of course makes us
able to relate to them and helps us to empathise with them, even if we don't necessarily
like them as characters.

Consider the character of Macbeth.
What drives him above all is his sense of ambition and his thirst for power. This is of
course a massive characteristic that all of us share or have experienced at some point
in our lives. Some people are just as consumed by their ambition as Macbeth is. Note the
way in which the prophecy of the witches clearly strikes a chord within Macbeth in Act I
scene 3:

This
supernatural soliciting

Cannot be ill; cannot be
good:

If ill, why hath it given me earnest of
success,

Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of
Cawdor:

If good, why do I yield to that
suggestion

Whose horrid image doth unfix my
hair,

And make my seated heart knock at my
ribs,

Against the use of nature? Present
fears

Are less than horrible
imaginings.

We can see the
beginning of the massive internal conflict that Macbeth faces as he oscillates between
thinking the prophecy is a good thing and recognising that it is a bad thing that is
being used to tempt him. His struggle about whether to act or not to act on his ambition
is one that the majority of the audience can relate to, making him a perfect example of
how Shakespeare created characters that could be relevant to an
audience.