How does Shakespeare build tension in Macbeth?

First some background into the Macbeth the play. Macbeth has been described as “A play for the king.” It gained this title because it is quite possible that Shakespeare wrote it for the entertainment of King James the first. It is known that James was highly into witchcraft because he wrote a book about it, there were even rumours that he practised it himself. This play has a strong atmosphere of witchcraft and witches all the way through.

There are other reasons Macbeth was called “A play for the King.” For instance the play was in fact based on the real life accounts of James’s ancestors Banquo and Fleance from who James inherited the throne of Scotland. Shakespeare got the idea from a book by Raphael Holinshed entitled “The history of Scotland.” However Shakespeare bent the facts quite a bit, due to the fact that in real life Banquo helped in the murder of King Duncan. There would obviously be consequences for insinuating that the only reason James was King is that ...