MACBETH page 4 Act II scene iii line 21 following
When Macduff enters, he is given a line and a half of blank verse before he changes to everyday prose and a different, lower register to banter with the drunken Porter. This shows that he has the common touch and he seems to enjoy inciting the man to further pseudo-philosophising about drink. They have been celebrating until three o'clock and the Porter has three effects of wine to discuss: its tendency to make the nose red, its power to make a person sleep and its capacity to create urine. We have seen the soporific effects and how these have been used for evil and this is another darker side to the superficial carousing and entertainment. The Porter mentions equivocation again, another minor theme but one which can refer to the Macbeths' untruths, in that drink makes a man lecherous but "takes away the performance." It therefore "makes him, and it mars him" by reducing him to impotence as is suggested by the pun on "stand." There is also a verbal quibble on "in a sleep", meaning "tricks him into sleep" and "tricks him when asleep with a dream." "Giving him the lie" is another play on words as it means "laying him out as in wrestling" but also "encouraging lies." Macduff picks this one up and accuses the Porter of both and the wrestling image is continued as drink took the Porter's legs from him in the contest although he paid drink back for it. This interlude both relieves and increases the tension as some of what is said is relevant to the murder off-stage and the lies the Macbeths will have to tell.
There is heavy dramatic irony in "Our knocking has awakened him" as we know Macbeth has not slept and that the knocking cannot rouse Duncan. This recurs at Macbeth's answer: "Not yet" and he succeeds here in covering his guilt with a smooth manner. Macduff is concerned that they are late but Macbeth hypocritically offers to call Duncan and says his pleasure in duty cures any trouble or pain. He is unctuous and convincing. Yet, he soon slips and could have revealed his secret knowledge in the brief qualification: "He did appoint so" but the men are concentrating on the storms of the night and do not notice this. The weather has been unnatural with abnormal sounds and occurrences: this is the universe or macrocosm corresponding to the little world of man or microcosm. It both echoes and presages foul human acts. Supernatural lamentings, screams and prophecies have been heard with suggestions of political confusion ["combustion"] newly brought into society: the owl has hooted all night (another reference to the leitmotif of birds in the play) and earthquakes have been reported - note the personification here in the word "feverous". Macbeth plays this down by the homely comment: "'Twas a rough night" even though Lenox feels it was extraordinary. This conversation is coloured by tense dramatic irony as we know what caused these disturbances and that Macduff will soon find the explanation in the form of the gruesome corpse of the sanctified King. A sin and crime of the most wicked type has been committed and Nature has responded.
The announcement of the murder has been awaited by the audience and Macduff's words come as no surprise. We therefore listen carefully to them and note the contrast between him and Macbeth in that his heart cannot think of such an act nor can he name it. He speaks of "confusion" because the King embodies law and order and is sacred in that he is God's anointed agent on earth. The image of a desecrated temple is the nearest Macduff can bring himself to speak of the sight he has seen and he insists the others look at it for themselves. The monster, the Gorgon, destroyed the sight of anyone who saw her as well as turning them to stone and this reference adds to the abnormality of the account. Macduff raises the alarm and noises and activity follow, mirroring in a domestic fashion the more serious confusion. Sleep is again compared to a harmless death to remind us that Duncan cannot be woken. When Macduff compares the matter to the "great doom's image", the Day of Judgement, his grief is overstated the hyperbole, but nevertheless sincere and genuine - he is an example of outraged virtue as are all the other men who are awoken. The sleepers are good men; those who have been up all night are evil. Lady Macbeth's capacity to act her part is called upon as she must pretend to know nothing of the reason for the alarm and the need to "parley" [confer]. With heavy dramatic irony, Macduff feels that he cannot tell a woman the truth for fear the news would kill her; he does not realise he is talking to one of the perpetrators and a female who would have carried it out if her nerve had not failed her at the last moment. Yet her psychological strength is in question as she has shown this failure.
When Banquo enters we have a meeting of two wholly good men (contrasting with Macbeth) and an evil woman. Her flaw in her own terms, shows in her response: "What! in our house?" She has not adopted the perfect camouflage here as Banquo's reply suggests when he points out that the murder is cruel no matter where it happened and her error may stick in the mind of any listener. His reaction is entirely unselfish as he or his offspring stand to gain if Duncan is dead and yet he wishes the fact to be reversed. We watch Macbeth with attention to see if he is better than his wife at the cover-up that she earlier insisted on although we do not yet realise that he has killed the guards, which was not part of the original plan. His speech, in which he selfishly wishes he had died before this happening, also contains dramatic irony as there is a sense in which he has already lived his most blessed time: his imagery is elaborate and the over-stressing that nothing in "mortality" [life] now has any worth but that all are "toys" does ring false to us. His hypocrisy may not be apparent to the others as he embarks on yet another metaphor of wine-making and claims that all that is left now is the dregs. These are surface generalisations encompassing everyone - he is not speaking from his own heart.
Macbeth's elaborate and changing imagery indicates hypocrisy and he now moves from the metaphor of a burial or wine vault to one of a spring or fountain: it takes Macduff to tell the sons plainly that their father has been murdered. Macbeth's monosyllabic exclamation: "You are, and do not know it" [you exist, have consciousness, and yet are unaware of what has happened] does not tell them what it is that they clearly do not know, as if he cannot bear to recount factually the result of his own deed. We now discover that the guards are the chief suspects as they have been found with hands, faces and daggers covered with blood and in such a deranged state of mind that they seemed capable of killing. It is a revelation that Macbeth has murdered them although he plays the penitent in a self-contradictory fashion and Macduff appears somewhat suspicious at the eradication of the only potential witnesses. Macbeth's reply is full of antitheses: "wise", "temperate" and "neutral" indicating the influence of reason, are in opposition to "amaz'd", "furious" and "loyal" suggesting passionate emotion. Using the metaphor of horsemanship again (we recall his speech about ambition) he claims that his love was swifter than rationality and that no man could have behaved in a considered manner at such a time. The monosyllabic two words, "No man", in answer to his own apparently rhetorical question stick in our minds as a shaky justification for a murder as there are, on stage, several men who would have been more cautious because of innocence and the desire to find the truth. His imagery becomes more elevated and insincere when he describes the scene in poetical terms, making it seem almost beautiful with Duncan's "silver skin" networked with "golden blood" before becoming more exaggerated at a claim that the wounds looked like cuts in nature itself for ultimate destruction. His pun on the word "breach/breech" meaning both a hole in a wall of a beseiged city and "covered up to the hilts as with sheaths" is another error of judgement and a potential revelation of guilt through artifice of language. He praises his own courage and loyal love which led him to this deed and, at this point, Lady Macbeth falls to the floor.
There are two main ways in which this collapse can be acted on stage: Lady Macbeth may seem increasingly anxious during her husband's speeches that he is failing to cover up convincingly and may stage a faint to distract attention before he reveals more or she may be genuinely overcome by the account of the scene and swoon. Her half-line: "Help me hence, ho!" probably completes Macbeth's phrase which suggests a controlled pretence but the issue is for the director and actress to decide. If she is faking, it indicates strong will-power and self-control but, if it is real, it prefaces her later decline into a nervous exhaustion. In either case, it is ironic in that she was the one to believe that it would be easy to camouflage the deed by superficial behaviour. We also may feel that the couple's failure to pretend adequately means that they are not inherently evil but have been led by Fate or submerged aspects of character to commit evil acts.
Duncan's sons speak to each other in asides, feeling that they have remained silent when others who are less involved have spoken, which reminds us that Macbeth was suspiciously quick to react which might suggest to any one alert that he was ready for the announcement. Malcolm and Donalbain are keeping quiet, claiming that they are not ready to grieve but are aware that their fate is waiting for them. When Banquo turns to Lady Macbeth and gives orders for her to be helped, we realise that Macbeth has ignored her faint, which suggests that he thinks it is a pretence. Banquo wants them to change from their "naked frailties" [their night clothes] and calmly and efficiently organises a meeting to discuss the "bloody" event, acknowledging that they all have "fears and scruples [doubts]". With internal rhymes ("hand", "stand", "thence", "pretence") stressing his conviction, he firmly declares himself under the protection of God and opposed to any "undivulged pretence" [unknown plot] of treason and evil. He may fear that Macbeth will kill Malcolm. The others complete his line of blank verse showing that they are in complete agreement but Macbeth has his own line in which he concurs that they must put on "manly readiness" [day garments and vigour] to reconvene later. Banquo now wants to confer whereas he did not wish to debate with Macbeth earlier when matters were merely speculative.
This leaves the sons time to discuss their next step: they criticise hypocritical expressions of grief, "unfelt sorrow", as being the facile behaviour of a "false man" which seems to indicate that they are wary of Macbeth and think their chances are better if they separate, although they do not seem to realise that their flight might make them look guilty. There is a sense of evil spreading and they do not trust the smiles of other men, thinking they might conceal daggers or murderous intentions towards them. (These words recall Lady Macbeth's instructions to her husband to cover up their deed.) The closer they are in blood relationship to Duncan the more vulnerable they are. Macbeth's wicked act has already had the consequence of splitting society, even that of the virtuous men. Malcolm accepts that, once bonds are broken, more trouble will follow and that the arrow of death has not yet reached its final target: they must therefore avoid it. The usual courtesies of farewell will be bypassed as they have justification: the last line and a half mean that there is an authority in the kind of thieving which steals only itself away.
Act II scene iv
The function of the first few lines of this short scene is to serve as a kind of chorus emphasising the unnaturalness of the murder of Duncan and stressing the correspondence between the macrocosm and the microcosm, the universe and the world of humans. The Old Man's memory of seventy years of suggests a Biblical quality in its phrasing so that he represents the common man whose words and thoughts would be universally acceptable. Like Lennox earlier, he dwells on the unique nature of the happenings which make former phenomena seem trivial. Rosse agrees, with a pun on "act" as deed and a part of a play on a stage, and feels that the heavens are troubled with the bloodthirsty deed and that, although it should be light, darkness "strangles the travelling lamp [the sun]". This imagery of murder underlines the believed cause of the abnormal blackout and he does not know whether night is gaining power or if day is ashamed. The lexis contains oppositions: day and night, light and dark and, underlying them, good and evil. The nameless Old Man, not an individual but voicing shocked normal reactions, mentions an unnatural occurence, mirroring the killing: a falcon attacked by an owl as a hawk would kill a mouse to which Rosse adds the even more disturbing account of Duncan's prized horses, the best of their kind, going wild, breaking out as if in conflict with man instead of serving their master, thus connectd to the idea that the guards have killed Duncan. He is eye-witness to the fact they ate each other, symbolic of one creature preying on another as evil breeds even more evil and destruction. The murder of a King does not stand alone.
The entry of Macduff shows another virtuous and outraged men, who accepts the phrase "more than bloody deed" since killing the King is also sacrilege. The guards are the suspects but believed to have been "suborn'd" [incited, urged on] by Malcolm and Donalbain who seem guilty because of their innocent flight to escape danger. This is chance helping Macbeth and there is irony in the situation, particularly when Rosse accuses them of ambition, which is Macbeth's main incentive and flaw. "Ravin up" menaing "eat greedily" reminds us of the unnatural horses and injustice appears when it is clear that Macbeth will inherit the throne, being already named a King and on his way to Scone for the coronation. Macduff leaves for Fife but Rosse will obediently attend the ceremony; there is suspicion in the tone used by Macduff and the Old Man and concern that the new regime will be worse than the old - we note the leitmotif of clothing in the imagery again here. The anonymous Old Man blesses them and uses a lexis of opposites similar to that of the witches: good/bad, friends/foes. Macbeth's reaction is omitted and we start to see him from a greater distance and more externally as Shakespeare controls our response to the villain who is also the eponymous hero. This last part of the scene is largely informative and suggests that Fate is with Macbeth for the moment. He has achieved his purpose and the prophecies of the witches are fulfilled but we feel that the wrong-doing will not stop here since the whole brief scene has created an atmosphere of abnormality and explosive, far-reaching evil.
Act III scene i
By the start of Act III, Macbeth and Banquo, once allies on different levels of comradeship and friendship, have become suspicious of each other showing how an evil influence spreads. Banquo can express his deepest doubts to himself when alone and realises that all the witches' prophecies for Macbeth have come true already. Since he knows that Macbeth became Thane of Cawdor legitimately, his fear that he has played "most foully for't" must logically refer to the murder of Duncan. He recalls that it was also promised that his own children and not any of Macbeth's heirs would be kings in the future but he seems content to trust to Fate and not to take action to bring this about, thus creating a complete contrast with Macbeth's attitude. In the case of Macbeth, it seems that his character or that of his wife or an interaction between the two became his fate in that he felt he must kill the King to become monarch himself. Whether or not he would have done this without the incitement of Lady Macbeth is debatable but the ambitious intention was there. Structurally, Banquo's soliloquy is paralleled and opposed within minutes by Macbeth's ruminations on events in which he plots further evil.
On the surface Banquo and Macbeth are courteous and flattering, as is Lady Macbeth, thus emphasising the theme of appearance and reality, as Banquo is invited to a banquet and the audience notices the significant play on words with echoing sounds and expects something dramatic from this ceremonious meal. Banquo stresses the "duties" which tie him, as subject, to the King as well as those of guest/host and friendship. Yet Macbeth is probing to find information about Banquo's plans for the afternoon under cover of wanting a "grave and prosperous [responsible and profitable]" meeting with him in council. He clearly has a plot in mind, although the ironically prophetic words: "Fail not our feast" and the answer: "My Lord, I will not" stick in our memories because of the alliteration.
Macbeth turns to state business, implicating Malcolm and Donalbain as "bloody cousins" in the parricide, the murder of a father. He is subtle in his pre-empting of the truth of their defence, calling their version "strange invention" as, presumably, they are blaming him: he has already become more adept at lying and scheming. He now ascertains whether or not Banquo's son, Fleance, will be with his father and we instantly realise what the next step will be, as the boy is a blockage to Macbeth's hopes of future succession. His apparently hospitable speech has broken half-lines to indicate that he is more nervous than he shows: on the surface he is calm, liberal and polite but he is plotting a murder of a youth and the simple instructions to call in men waiting at the gate take on a sinister tone as he effortlessly uses the royal plurals "our" and "us" to speak of himself.
Macbeth is now King and the three prophecies concerning him are all fulfilled but he does not feel secure in his new position. He is now corrupted by evil and, in his next soliloquy, he does not wrestle with moral questions; instead he makes a decision and justifies it afterwards, a rationalisation. So far he has acted to implement Fate, even though that may not have been necessary, but now he acts against it in deciding to murder Banquo and his son, Fleance. We have his inner thoughts as he reveals that the coveted role of monarch seems "nothing" unless he feels safe in it. A short line suggests that his fears about Banquo do "stick deep" as he recognises his old friend's virtues, ironically and rather bitterly accepting that he has true "royalty of nature" continuing the obsessive lexis with the word "reigns". He knows him to be brave and have a "dauntless temper (quality)" of mind in addition to which he has a courageous disposition, though one guided by wisdom to ensure a secure outcome. This generous tribute is convincing as he would need to characterise his enemy as worth the opposition rather than feeble. He is aware of good but is trapped by evil.
Macbeth claims that it is only Banquo that he fears (although we may feel that his evil intentions will know no bounds) and he compares himself to Mark Antony whose "Genius" or guardian spirit was undermined by Caesar so that his courage is diminished when the other person is near. His memory of the meeting with the witches is false as Banquo did not rebuke them for calling Macbeth a future king although he did question them rationally. Macbeth seems to be misremembering almost deliberately to make Banquo more suspect. This kind of mental game-playing makes us more certain that he will find someone else later to eliminate. The thought of Banquo's children becoming kings haunts him and he calls his possession of the crown "fruitless" and his sceptre "barren" since it will pass on to someone else's son. It is never clear whether or not Macbeth has an actual son ready to inherit but no mention of a living child is made. If he is right he has committed murder on the "gracious Duncan" whose virtue he recognises and has put bitterness in his potential peacefulness for the sake of Banquo's offspring as well as condemning his own "eternal jewel [soul]" to Satan's control, "the common Enemy of man." The rhythm and words become repetitive as he fulminates against his position and determines to act against Fate as if in a joust. At this moment the hired killers enter and we realise that Macbeth planned this the day before and that this speech was mere justification. At the murder of Duncan, Macbeth was the actual killer but now he is engaging agents and distancing himself from the bloodshed: a mark of a tyrant is the manipulation of others to perform crimes. Another contrast is that Lady Macbeth does not even know of this plan and so the two are growing apart as the number of other people involved as victims and perpetrators grows. Evil is spreading and there is no sign yet of a reaction from the powers of the good.
Macbeth is showing signs of becoming a tyrant but he irrationally wants to convince his hired assassins that the murder is desirable, as though some moral scruple lingers or an anxiety about outward appearances even to the thugs. Yet much of what he says is lies, as is the first claim that it was Banquo who caused them to live "under fortune" [in a miserable state] when they thought it to be himself oppressing them. He told them this the last time they met and tried "probation" [convincing by proof] to make them believe that Banquo had deceived and frustrated them and how this had been done so that even a man with half a soul and a weak mind would accept the evidence and say: "Thus did Banquo." The first nameless murderer answers curtly as if he does not care about the truth or justice of his commission and we realise that it is odd that Macbeth thinks he might be concerned. However, he proceeds to try to draw an agreement out of them and accuses them of foolish "patience" [tolerance] in that they seem to pray in Christian fashion for Banquo when he has "bow'd [them] to the grave" and made them poor.. He cannot keep the topic of Banquo's children, his "issue", out of his mind or speeches as this is his main obsession. It is also a consideration that his rule has caused suffering.
When the answer comes: "We are men, my Liege", he uses on them the same tactics as Lady Macbeth employed so successfully on him, an accusation of lack of manliness. When once he needed to be motivated to commit murder, he now incites others by corrupt methods. The next lines are sometimes omitted in performance but they are important in that they establish a hierarchy, not only of dogs, to whom Macbeth compares the murderers, but of men, making us aware that he himself is sinking down any such system of values. He tells them that they would be categorised as men in a general sense but only in so far as low curs are called dogs: any discrimination would distinguish between the "swift, the slow, the subtle/The housekeeper, the hunter" according to their natural gifts and would give them a special "addition" [name]. If the men want "a station in the file" [a place in the list] above the lowest "worst rank", they must prove their manliness by doing the murder. This will bond them with Macbeth in "heart and love" and make him healthy whereas now he feels "sickly" because Banquo is alive. This imagery of sickness and health shows the same reversal of values that the witches used since health is seen here as an outcome of a killing and foul will become fair. The speech is ironic since Macbeth is, by his plot, aligning himself with the lowest of men whereas once he was amongst the highest.
The two men seem weary of this talk and persuasion, the first merely saying that he is so desperate because of his misfortunes in life that he will do anything out of spite: this is evil out of hopelessness in contrast to Macbeth's which is a result of unbounded ambition. Macbeth still tries to convince them to kill for the reasons he is giving them and goes as far as to claim that Banquo threatens his very existence in "bloody distance" [bitter hatred] where we notice yet another of the ubiquitous uses of the word "bloody" throughout the play, one of the elements which gives it its relentless dark atmosphere. Macbeth's obsession becomes overt when he claims he could rid himself openly of Banquo were it not for the friends who would oppose it and whose alliance he needs: these are the motives of expediency now. He excuses his own hypocrisy in bewailing the death of an enemy and hiding his own guilty part in it. Flattering them for their "spirits" although they remain blunt in their response, he promises to send further instructions, including "the perfect spy o'th'time", a phrase which could mean the exact time for the deed or a spy in the form of a third murderer, (appointed because of their lack of enthusiasm to make sure the act is performed.) Macbeth needs the murder done that night and at a distance from the palace; using euphemisms again he desires a "clearness" [completeness without repercussions] in the deed which must include the killing of Fleance, although he cannot give reasons for this extra and harrowing evil. Other euphemisms are: "absence" and "embrace the fate" and we recall that such terms of avoidance were used by the couple for the murder of Duncan. Macbeth is now more cautious, more cunning and more removed from the deed itself. He is part way through his wicked evolution and is remorseless though self-justificatory - the final rhyming couplet reminds us of the religious side of the matter. There is a contrast between Macbeth on his own, with the murderers and in public; in each role we see varying degrees of revelation or concealment of the inner man.
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When Macduff enters, he is given a line and a half of blank verse before he changes to everyday prose and a different, lower register to banter with the drunken Porter. This shows that he has the common touch and he seems to enjoy inciting the man to further pseudo-philosophising about drink. They have been celebrating until three o'clock and the Porter has three effects of wine to discuss: its tendency to make the nose red, its power to make a person sleep and its capacity to create urine. We have seen the soporific effects and how these have been used for evil and this is another darker side to the superficial carousing and entertainment. The Porter mentions equivocation again, another minor theme but one which can refer to the Macbeths' untruths, in that drink makes a man lecherous but "takes away the performance." It therefore "makes him, and it mars him" by reducing him to impotence as is suggested by the pun on "stand." There is also a verbal quibble on "in a sleep", meaning "tricks him into sleep" and "tricks him when asleep with a dream." "Giving him the lie" is another play on words as it means "laying him out as in wrestling" but also "encouraging lies." Macduff picks this one up and accuses the Porter of both and the wrestling image is continued as drink took the Porter's legs from him in the contest although he paid drink back for it. This interlude both relieves and increases the tension as some of what is said is relevant to the murder off-stage and the lies the Macbeths will have to tell.
There is heavy dramatic irony in "Our knocking has awakened him" as we know Macbeth has not slept and that the knocking cannot rouse Duncan. This recurs at Macbeth's answer: "Not yet" and he succeeds here in covering his guilt with a smooth manner. Macduff is concerned that they are late but Macbeth hypocritically offers to call Duncan and says his pleasure in duty cures any trouble or pain. He is unctuous and convincing. Yet, he soon slips and could have revealed his secret knowledge in the brief qualification: "He did appoint so" but the men are concentrating on the storms of the night and do not notice this. The weather has been unnatural with abnormal sounds and occurrences: this is the universe or macrocosm corresponding to the little world of man or microcosm. It both echoes and presages foul human acts. Supernatural lamentings, screams and prophecies have been heard with suggestions of political confusion ["combustion"] newly brought into society: the owl has hooted all night (another reference to the leitmotif of birds in the play) and earthquakes have been reported - note the personification here in the word "feverous". Macbeth plays this down by the homely comment: "'Twas a rough night" even though Lenox feels it was extraordinary. This conversation is coloured by tense dramatic irony as we know what caused these disturbances and that Macduff will soon find the explanation in the form of the gruesome corpse of the sanctified King. A sin and crime of the most wicked type has been committed and Nature has responded.
The announcement of the murder has been awaited by the audience and Macduff's words come as no surprise. We therefore listen carefully to them and note the contrast between him and Macbeth in that his heart cannot think of such an act nor can he name it. He speaks of "confusion" because the King embodies law and order and is sacred in that he is God's anointed agent on earth. The image of a desecrated temple is the nearest Macduff can bring himself to speak of the sight he has seen and he insists the others look at it for themselves. The monster, the Gorgon, destroyed the sight of anyone who saw her as well as turning them to stone and this reference adds to the abnormality of the account. Macduff raises the alarm and noises and activity follow, mirroring in a domestic fashion the more serious confusion. Sleep is again compared to a harmless death to remind us that Duncan cannot be woken. When Macduff compares the matter to the "great doom's image", the Day of Judgement, his grief is overstated the hyperbole, but nevertheless sincere and genuine - he is an example of outraged virtue as are all the other men who are awoken. The sleepers are good men; those who have been up all night are evil. Lady Macbeth's capacity to act her part is called upon as she must pretend to know nothing of the reason for the alarm and the need to "parley" [confer]. With heavy dramatic irony, Macduff feels that he cannot tell a woman the truth for fear the news would kill her; he does not realise he is talking to one of the perpetrators and a female who would have carried it out if her nerve had not failed her at the last moment. Yet her psychological strength is in question as she has shown this failure.
When Banquo enters we have a meeting of two wholly good men (contrasting with Macbeth) and an evil woman. Her flaw in her own terms, shows in her response: "What! in our house?" She has not adopted the perfect camouflage here as Banquo's reply suggests when he points out that the murder is cruel no matter where it happened and her error may stick in the mind of any listener. His reaction is entirely unselfish as he or his offspring stand to gain if Duncan is dead and yet he wishes the fact to be reversed. We watch Macbeth with attention to see if he is better than his wife at the cover-up that she earlier insisted on although we do not yet realise that he has killed the guards, which was not part of the original plan. His speech, in which he selfishly wishes he had died before this happening, also contains dramatic irony as there is a sense in which he has already lived his most blessed time: his imagery is elaborate and the over-stressing that nothing in "mortality" [life] now has any worth but that all are "toys" does ring false to us. His hypocrisy may not be apparent to the others as he embarks on yet another metaphor of wine-making and claims that all that is left now is the dregs. These are surface generalisations encompassing everyone - he is not speaking from his own heart.
Macbeth's elaborate and changing imagery indicates hypocrisy and he now moves from the metaphor of a burial or wine vault to one of a spring or fountain: it takes Macduff to tell the sons plainly that their father has been murdered. Macbeth's monosyllabic exclamation: "You are, and do not know it" [you exist, have consciousness, and yet are unaware of what has happened] does not tell them what it is that they clearly do not know, as if he cannot bear to recount factually the result of his own deed. We now discover that the guards are the chief suspects as they have been found with hands, faces and daggers covered with blood and in such a deranged state of mind that they seemed capable of killing. It is a revelation that Macbeth has murdered them although he plays the penitent in a self-contradictory fashion and Macduff appears somewhat suspicious at the eradication of the only potential witnesses. Macbeth's reply is full of antitheses: "wise", "temperate" and "neutral" indicating the influence of reason, are in opposition to "amaz'd", "furious" and "loyal" suggesting passionate emotion. Using the metaphor of horsemanship again (we recall his speech about ambition) he claims that his love was swifter than rationality and that no man could have behaved in a considered manner at such a time. The monosyllabic two words, "No man", in answer to his own apparently rhetorical question stick in our minds as a shaky justification for a murder as there are, on stage, several men who would have been more cautious because of innocence and the desire to find the truth. His imagery becomes more elevated and insincere when he describes the scene in poetical terms, making it seem almost beautiful with Duncan's "silver skin" networked with "golden blood" before becoming more exaggerated at a claim that the wounds looked like cuts in nature itself for ultimate destruction. His pun on the word "breach/breech" meaning both a hole in a wall of a beseiged city and "covered up to the hilts as with sheaths" is another error of judgement and a potential revelation of guilt through artifice of language. He praises his own courage and loyal love which led him to this deed and, at this point, Lady Macbeth falls to the floor.
There are two main ways in which this collapse can be acted on stage: Lady Macbeth may seem increasingly anxious during her husband's speeches that he is failing to cover up convincingly and may stage a faint to distract attention before he reveals more or she may be genuinely overcome by the account of the scene and swoon. Her half-line: "Help me hence, ho!" probably completes Macbeth's phrase which suggests a controlled pretence but the issue is for the director and actress to decide. If she is faking, it indicates strong will-power and self-control but, if it is real, it prefaces her later decline into a nervous exhaustion. In either case, it is ironic in that she was the one to believe that it would be easy to camouflage the deed by superficial behaviour. We also may feel that the couple's failure to pretend adequately means that they are not inherently evil but have been led by Fate or submerged aspects of character to commit evil acts.
Duncan's sons speak to each other in asides, feeling that they have remained silent when others who are less involved have spoken, which reminds us that Macbeth was suspiciously quick to react which might suggest to any one alert that he was ready for the announcement. Malcolm and Donalbain are keeping quiet, claiming that they are not ready to grieve but are aware that their fate is waiting for them. When Banquo turns to Lady Macbeth and gives orders for her to be helped, we realise that Macbeth has ignored her faint, which suggests that he thinks it is a pretence. Banquo wants them to change from their "naked frailties" [their night clothes] and calmly and efficiently organises a meeting to discuss the "bloody" event, acknowledging that they all have "fears and scruples [doubts]". With internal rhymes ("hand", "stand", "thence", "pretence") stressing his conviction, he firmly declares himself under the protection of God and opposed to any "undivulged pretence" [unknown plot] of treason and evil. He may fear that Macbeth will kill Malcolm. The others complete his line of blank verse showing that they are in complete agreement but Macbeth has his own line in which he concurs that they must put on "manly readiness" [day garments and vigour] to reconvene later. Banquo now wants to confer whereas he did not wish to debate with Macbeth earlier when matters were merely speculative.
This leaves the sons time to discuss their next step: they criticise hypocritical expressions of grief, "unfelt sorrow", as being the facile behaviour of a "false man" which seems to indicate that they are wary of Macbeth and think their chances are better if they separate, although they do not seem to realise that their flight might make them look guilty. There is a sense of evil spreading and they do not trust the smiles of other men, thinking they might conceal daggers or murderous intentions towards them. (These words recall Lady Macbeth's instructions to her husband to cover up their deed.) The closer they are in blood relationship to Duncan the more vulnerable they are. Macbeth's wicked act has already had the consequence of splitting society, even that of the virtuous men. Malcolm accepts that, once bonds are broken, more trouble will follow and that the arrow of death has not yet reached its final target: they must therefore avoid it. The usual courtesies of farewell will be bypassed as they have justification: the last line and a half mean that there is an authority in the kind of thieving which steals only itself away.
Act II scene iv
The function of the first few lines of this short scene is to serve as a kind of chorus emphasising the unnaturalness of the murder of Duncan and stressing the correspondence between the macrocosm and the microcosm, the universe and the world of humans. The Old Man's memory of seventy years of suggests a Biblical quality in its phrasing so that he represents the common man whose words and thoughts would be universally acceptable. Like Lennox earlier, he dwells on the unique nature of the happenings which make former phenomena seem trivial. Rosse agrees, with a pun on "act" as deed and a part of a play on a stage, and feels that the heavens are troubled with the bloodthirsty deed and that, although it should be light, darkness "strangles the travelling lamp [the sun]". This imagery of murder underlines the believed cause of the abnormal blackout and he does not know whether night is gaining power or if day is ashamed. The lexis contains oppositions: day and night, light and dark and, underlying them, good and evil. The nameless Old Man, not an individual but voicing shocked normal reactions, mentions an unnatural occurence, mirroring the killing: a falcon attacked by an owl as a hawk would kill a mouse to which Rosse adds the even more disturbing account of Duncan's prized horses, the best of their kind, going wild, breaking out as if in conflict with man instead of serving their master, thus connectd to the idea that the guards have killed Duncan. He is eye-witness to the fact they ate each other, symbolic of one creature preying on another as evil breeds even more evil and destruction. The murder of a King does not stand alone.
The entry of Macduff shows another virtuous and outraged men, who accepts the phrase "more than bloody deed" since killing the King is also sacrilege. The guards are the suspects but believed to have been "suborn'd" [incited, urged on] by Malcolm and Donalbain who seem guilty because of their innocent flight to escape danger. This is chance helping Macbeth and there is irony in the situation, particularly when Rosse accuses them of ambition, which is Macbeth's main incentive and flaw. "Ravin up" menaing "eat greedily" reminds us of the unnatural horses and injustice appears when it is clear that Macbeth will inherit the throne, being already named a King and on his way to Scone for the coronation. Macduff leaves for Fife but Rosse will obediently attend the ceremony; there is suspicion in the tone used by Macduff and the Old Man and concern that the new regime will be worse than the old - we note the leitmotif of clothing in the imagery again here. The anonymous Old Man blesses them and uses a lexis of opposites similar to that of the witches: good/bad, friends/foes. Macbeth's reaction is omitted and we start to see him from a greater distance and more externally as Shakespeare controls our response to the villain who is also the eponymous hero. This last part of the scene is largely informative and suggests that Fate is with Macbeth for the moment. He has achieved his purpose and the prophecies of the witches are fulfilled but we feel that the wrong-doing will not stop here since the whole brief scene has created an atmosphere of abnormality and explosive, far-reaching evil.
Act III scene i
By the start of Act III, Macbeth and Banquo, once allies on different levels of comradeship and friendship, have become suspicious of each other showing how an evil influence spreads. Banquo can express his deepest doubts to himself when alone and realises that all the witches' prophecies for Macbeth have come true already. Since he knows that Macbeth became Thane of Cawdor legitimately, his fear that he has played "most foully for't" must logically refer to the murder of Duncan. He recalls that it was also promised that his own children and not any of Macbeth's heirs would be kings in the future but he seems content to trust to Fate and not to take action to bring this about, thus creating a complete contrast with Macbeth's attitude. In the case of Macbeth, it seems that his character or that of his wife or an interaction between the two became his fate in that he felt he must kill the King to become monarch himself. Whether or not he would have done this without the incitement of Lady Macbeth is debatable but the ambitious intention was there. Structurally, Banquo's soliloquy is paralleled and opposed within minutes by Macbeth's ruminations on events in which he plots further evil.
On the surface Banquo and Macbeth are courteous and flattering, as is Lady Macbeth, thus emphasising the theme of appearance and reality, as Banquo is invited to a banquet and the audience notices the significant play on words with echoing sounds and expects something dramatic from this ceremonious meal. Banquo stresses the "duties" which tie him, as subject, to the King as well as those of guest/host and friendship. Yet Macbeth is probing to find information about Banquo's plans for the afternoon under cover of wanting a "grave and prosperous [responsible and profitable]" meeting with him in council. He clearly has a plot in mind, although the ironically prophetic words: "Fail not our feast" and the answer: "My Lord, I will not" stick in our memories because of the alliteration.
Macbeth turns to state business, implicating Malcolm and Donalbain as "bloody cousins" in the parricide, the murder of a father. He is subtle in his pre-empting of the truth of their defence, calling their version "strange invention" as, presumably, they are blaming him: he has already become more adept at lying and scheming. He now ascertains whether or not Banquo's son, Fleance, will be with his father and we instantly realise what the next step will be, as the boy is a blockage to Macbeth's hopes of future succession. His apparently hospitable speech has broken half-lines to indicate that he is more nervous than he shows: on the surface he is calm, liberal and polite but he is plotting a murder of a youth and the simple instructions to call in men waiting at the gate take on a sinister tone as he effortlessly uses the royal plurals "our" and "us" to speak of himself.
Macbeth is now King and the three prophecies concerning him are all fulfilled but he does not feel secure in his new position. He is now corrupted by evil and, in his next soliloquy, he does not wrestle with moral questions; instead he makes a decision and justifies it afterwards, a rationalisation. So far he has acted to implement Fate, even though that may not have been necessary, but now he acts against it in deciding to murder Banquo and his son, Fleance. We have his inner thoughts as he reveals that the coveted role of monarch seems "nothing" unless he feels safe in it. A short line suggests that his fears about Banquo do "stick deep" as he recognises his old friend's virtues, ironically and rather bitterly accepting that he has true "royalty of nature" continuing the obsessive lexis with the word "reigns". He knows him to be brave and have a "dauntless temper (quality)" of mind in addition to which he has a courageous disposition, though one guided by wisdom to ensure a secure outcome. This generous tribute is convincing as he would need to characterise his enemy as worth the opposition rather than feeble. He is aware of good but is trapped by evil.
Macbeth claims that it is only Banquo that he fears (although we may feel that his evil intentions will know no bounds) and he compares himself to Mark Antony whose "Genius" or guardian spirit was undermined by Caesar so that his courage is diminished when the other person is near. His memory of the meeting with the witches is false as Banquo did not rebuke them for calling Macbeth a future king although he did question them rationally. Macbeth seems to be misremembering almost deliberately to make Banquo more suspect. This kind of mental game-playing makes us more certain that he will find someone else later to eliminate. The thought of Banquo's children becoming kings haunts him and he calls his possession of the crown "fruitless" and his sceptre "barren" since it will pass on to someone else's son. It is never clear whether or not Macbeth has an actual son ready to inherit but no mention of a living child is made. If he is right he has committed murder on the "gracious Duncan" whose virtue he recognises and has put bitterness in his potential peacefulness for the sake of Banquo's offspring as well as condemning his own "eternal jewel [soul]" to Satan's control, "the common Enemy of man." The rhythm and words become repetitive as he fulminates against his position and determines to act against Fate as if in a joust. At this moment the hired killers enter and we realise that Macbeth planned this the day before and that this speech was mere justification. At the murder of Duncan, Macbeth was the actual killer but now he is engaging agents and distancing himself from the bloodshed: a mark of a tyrant is the manipulation of others to perform crimes. Another contrast is that Lady Macbeth does not even know of this plan and so the two are growing apart as the number of other people involved as victims and perpetrators grows. Evil is spreading and there is no sign yet of a reaction from the powers of the good.
Macbeth is showing signs of becoming a tyrant but he irrationally wants to convince his hired assassins that the murder is desirable, as though some moral scruple lingers or an anxiety about outward appearances even to the thugs. Yet much of what he says is lies, as is the first claim that it was Banquo who caused them to live "under fortune" [in a miserable state] when they thought it to be himself oppressing them. He told them this the last time they met and tried "probation" [convincing by proof] to make them believe that Banquo had deceived and frustrated them and how this had been done so that even a man with half a soul and a weak mind would accept the evidence and say: "Thus did Banquo." The first nameless murderer answers curtly as if he does not care about the truth or justice of his commission and we realise that it is odd that Macbeth thinks he might be concerned. However, he proceeds to try to draw an agreement out of them and accuses them of foolish "patience" [tolerance] in that they seem to pray in Christian fashion for Banquo when he has "bow'd [them] to the grave" and made them poor.. He cannot keep the topic of Banquo's children, his "issue", out of his mind or speeches as this is his main obsession. It is also a consideration that his rule has caused suffering.
When the answer comes: "We are men, my Liege", he uses on them the same tactics as Lady Macbeth employed so successfully on him, an accusation of lack of manliness. When once he needed to be motivated to commit murder, he now incites others by corrupt methods. The next lines are sometimes omitted in performance but they are important in that they establish a hierarchy, not only of dogs, to whom Macbeth compares the murderers, but of men, making us aware that he himself is sinking down any such system of values. He tells them that they would be categorised as men in a general sense but only in so far as low curs are called dogs: any discrimination would distinguish between the "swift, the slow, the subtle/The housekeeper, the hunter" according to their natural gifts and would give them a special "addition" [name]. If the men want "a station in the file" [a place in the list] above the lowest "worst rank", they must prove their manliness by doing the murder. This will bond them with Macbeth in "heart and love" and make him healthy whereas now he feels "sickly" because Banquo is alive. This imagery of sickness and health shows the same reversal of values that the witches used since health is seen here as an outcome of a killing and foul will become fair. The speech is ironic since Macbeth is, by his plot, aligning himself with the lowest of men whereas once he was amongst the highest.
The two men seem weary of this talk and persuasion, the first merely saying that he is so desperate because of his misfortunes in life that he will do anything out of spite: this is evil out of hopelessness in contrast to Macbeth's which is a result of unbounded ambition. Macbeth still tries to convince them to kill for the reasons he is giving them and goes as far as to claim that Banquo threatens his very existence in "bloody distance" [bitter hatred] where we notice yet another of the ubiquitous uses of the word "bloody" throughout the play, one of the elements which gives it its relentless dark atmosphere. Macbeth's obsession becomes overt when he claims he could rid himself openly of Banquo were it not for the friends who would oppose it and whose alliance he needs: these are the motives of expediency now. He excuses his own hypocrisy in bewailing the death of an enemy and hiding his own guilty part in it. Flattering them for their "spirits" although they remain blunt in their response, he promises to send further instructions, including "the perfect spy o'th'time", a phrase which could mean the exact time for the deed or a spy in the form of a third murderer, (appointed because of their lack of enthusiasm to make sure the act is performed.) Macbeth needs the murder done that night and at a distance from the palace; using euphemisms again he desires a "clearness" [completeness without repercussions] in the deed which must include the killing of Fleance, although he cannot give reasons for this extra and harrowing evil. Other euphemisms are: "absence" and "embrace the fate" and we recall that such terms of avoidance were used by the couple for the murder of Duncan. Macbeth is now more cautious, more cunning and more removed from the deed itself. He is part way through his wicked evolution and is remorseless though self-justificatory - the final rhyming couplet reminds us of the religious side of the matter. There is a contrast between Macbeth on his own, with the murderers and in public; in each role we see varying degrees of revelation or concealment of the inner man.
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