Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Act Two
How does Macbeth's castle in Act II, Scene 3 create a tension between horror and comedy?

4 comments:

  1. The appearence of the porter says things disorderedly, but all those indicates that Macbeth's castle is now a evil hell. The most interesting part is the lines said by porter. He pointed out the death of Duncan unconsciously, and when he replied to Macduff he talked about the function of being drunk. It's funny but also is a cue to Macbeth's ambition: "It provokes, and unprovoke; it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance. Therefore much drink may be said to be an equivocator of lechery; it makes him and it mars him. It sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him and disheartened him……in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep and giving him the lie, leaves him." The porter is almost a sage. When I am reading this line, it breaks me into cold sweat. It showed the truth of Duncan, who is defended by Macbeth and also murdered by him. He is persuaded to believe in Macbeth as a guest, but he is disheartened. Furthermore, it is a cue to Macbeth's fall, what a scary foreshadowing! Macbeth is makes up by his ambition, indeed, he will be destroyed by over ambitious. He killed Banquo and his reign will be cut short by Fleance, the son of Duncan. The blind ambiton provokes him, arouses his desire, but once he steps on the mislead raod, he has no performance anymore. What brings him up, gives him the lie. Just like robots we created, the missile we made, the nuclear bomb we hid, will not they equivocate us in a sleep and give us the lie, and finally leave us?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Through the Porter, we see both comedy, horror, and also some truth. The way that the Porter introduces the element of horror is by pretending to be a gate keeper to hell. He says, "Here's a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he/ should have old turning the key. Knock,/ knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of Beelzebub?" (2.3.1-3). This gives the audience an eerie feeling, especially when thinking about the time period in which the play was first written and how people were very frightened by the supernatural. The way that the Porter introduces some truth is by talking about the people that he sees at hell's gate. These people make reference to Macbeth and what has just gone on inside the castle. This is especially true when the porter brings up the equivocator, "th' other devil's name? Faith, ther's an equivocator, that/ could swear in both the scales against either scale; who com-/ mitted treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivo-/ cate to heaven: O, come in, equivocator." (2.3.7-10). Macbeth has become an equivocator, and in the same way that the Porter describes it, cannot get into heaven because of the crimes he has committed. The comedy appears in the later part of his speech when he talks about being drunk and other things you can figure out for yourself.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Macbeth's castle was a place of horror and comedy where things seem both fair and foul. Of course this was made clear through the Porter's comedic and creepy antics. Horror and comedy often make use of dramatic irony where things are not always what they seem from a given character's perspective. For instance, King Duncan stayed one night in Macbeth's castle and also some nobles held a celebratory dinner in his castle. They celebrated their success in the battle. Duncan gave presents to Lady Macbeth and some other people, Macbeth was given the title of "Thane of Cawdor". It seemed happy there. However, behind the external happiness, a plot was being planned by Macbeth and his wife to murder the King. Like many comedies and horror films, things are not what they seem at Macbeth's castle. From here, Macbeth began his descent toward villainy.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Through the character of the porter in Act II Scene 3, we are introduced to the horror of what he says but also the comical side of why this may be true. The porter introduces himself to Macduff and Lennox as the gatekeeper to Hell, which in itself adds some horror based on the fact this is happening at 3am. This sets the mood as slightly eerie because we the audience already know of the events that just took place at the castle. That is the horrific aspect of it, but reading into this scene a little more we start to see the slight comedic aspect to it providing some dramatic irony to our story. Since the porter goes to introduce himself as the gatekeeper to Hell, we the readers are to assume that the porter is playing at the castle being in Hell and how the residents have entered Hell itself. This is comedic in the essence that with the event of murdering Duncan having just taken place, the residents of the castle really have been eternally damned and therefore should be in Hell. Now the porter having no idea of what has taken place is presumably seen as innocent but his innocent is seen as all the more comedic in the fact that with having no idea about what just happened it must be fate that he decides to introduce himself in this manner. This plays into the recurring theme we keep seeing throughout his play of how things are not as they seem, and Macbeth's castle and this horrific comedy of the porter's scene can just be added to the list.

    ReplyDelete