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Macbeth
In Act I Scene 2 of the tragedy of Macbeth, Shakespeare -- after giving a brutally graphic description of how Macbeth "unseam'd…from the nave to the chaps" an enemy soldier -- makes his hero's name rhyme with the word "death" at the scene's conclusion (64-5). Of course the technique of the play is to combine psychological realism with densely-written poetic language. Yet I hope that an examination of the play's supposed moment of comic relief in prose -- the "Porter Scene" that opens Macbeth Act 2 Scene 3 -- reveals, when read as poetry, an additional level of grotesque imagery. I think a closer examination will reveal that, although the Porter's dialogue is written in prose, it deserves to be called "prose-poetry," for Shakespeare still uses metaphor, linguistic detail, and context in order to achieve the same level of condensed and knotty language which characterizes his verse.
The "Porter Scene" technically begins at the conclusion of the previous scene. But it is necessary to look a little more closely at how the conclusion of Act 2 Scene 2 "sets up" the porter scene and establishes its poetic context. So the introduction of the Porter directly follows the murder of Duncan by the Macbeths,...
As Lady Macbeth offers the glib pun as she expresses a plan to frame Duncan's grooms for his death -- "I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal / and make it seem their guilt" -- she exits while a loud knocking comes in the opposite direction. The effect is surreal, as though somehow justice itself were calling out for Duncan to be avenged. Yet neither Macbeth nor Lady Macbeth ever falter in the rhythm of their blank verse, even after killing Duncan, and indeed are capable of the most sophisticated sorts of wordplay: not only the toying pun with "gild" and "gilt" to refer to smearing blood on the grooms, but also the ornately classical vocabulary of Macbeth's "multitudinous seas incarnadine" mean that the formality of the verse does not falter at the most horrifying moment of the drama. But if we have been hearing iambic pentameter with more or less metronomic regularity throughout the play -- there are scattered moments of prose (such as the letter read by Lady Macbeth) but overall the choice to violate the metrical poetic regularity of the play at this moment mimics the disruption caused by Duncan's assassination.
But the next way in which the…
Macbeth The marriage relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth is ironically close, given their overwhelming personal ambitions. Throughout the play, the couple bonds over murder, guilt, and a hunger for the throne. Driven by their individual desires to attain and maintain a position of power in Scotland, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth feed off of each other. However, their relationship disintegrates not because they lack love or respect for one another, but
They believed in the idea of Wyrd, or the Nordic version of fate. This fate was based on past events of an individual's life. Their future would be adjusted accordingly by Wyrd, much like the Eastern idea of Karma, (Herbert 1995). It was the destiny of all men, based on what individuals had done previously in their lives. This element is prevalent throughout Shakespeare's Macbeth, in that his fate
Their inability to come to terms with the facts of their success and the actions they were required to take to achieve it becomes, in many ways, the focus of the film, and becomes the true heart of the story Polanski is trying to tell in this film. Character Changes The violence and psychological crumbling it causes is not only accentuated in Polanski's Macbeth by these added scenes, but also in
Macbeth and Oediups Rex are great tragedies from two very different time periods. Even though such different writers wrote them, and in such different times, the similarities that exist between the two are remarkable. Shakespeare and Sophocles both understood exactly what it took to write great tragedy. By comparing how fate plays a part in each play, it is better seen that perhaps Sophocles and Shakespeare were on similar wavelengths.
/ He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear / His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear. / And you all know security / Is mortals' chiefest enemy." (Act III, Scene 5). True to the prophesy of the above words, Macbeth destroys both his security and power by succumbing to the illusion of security. The appearance of extreme wealth and power blinds him to the true danger around him and
Macbeth REVISED Shakespeare's tragedy of Macbeth is, in some ways, the story of a disaster that everyone can see coming. After all, it opens with characters -- the Three Witches -- who can see the future. When Macbeth encounters them, the witches offer what Shakespeare terms "strange intelligence" or "prophetic greeting" -- predicting that he will attain the titles of Thane of Cawdor, Thane of Glamis, and King of Scotland (I.iii).