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| Sunday, 26 March 2006 |
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A/L English Literature Made Easy - Drama: Macbeth by William Shakespeare Act 5 Scene 6 This is a very short scene. The setting is Dunsinane before the castle. Enter Malcolm, Siward, Macduff and their army with boughs as "leavy screens". Malcolm orders the soldiers to throw away their leaf screens and show their true selves. His uncle and cousin leading the battle and Malcolm and Macduff following them. Macduff gives an order to sound the trumpets thus giving the signal. Act 5 Scene 7 Scene 7 begins in another part of the field amidst alarums. Macbeth enters. Macbeth, "Bellona's bridegroom" fights not as he used to do but with his natural qualities, due to the crimes that he committed the murder of innocent folk and evil attitudes that he possessed. He seems to have acquired the instinct, the ferocious qualities and the beastly look of an animal. He compares himself "tied to a stake," "I cannot fly, Shakespeare has referred to the cruel events the pastimes like bear baiting, that existed at that time. Siward enters inquiring "what's thy name?" and Macbeth, "Thou' It be afraid to hear it." Siward retorting Macbeth says that the very name Macbeth was hateful to his ear. Young Siward fights and gets slain by Macbeth. Macbeth recalls the words of the witches, "None of woman born can harm Macbeth" Macduff challenges Macbeth for Macduff is determined to take revenge, on behalf of his wife and children. Malcolm and old Siward enter the castle. Act 5 Scene 8 Macbeth does not hesitate to die by committing suicide to avoid capture. In 'Julius Caeser'Titinius kills himself to avoid capture, saying "This is a Roman's part." Macduff displaying his hatred to Macbeth calls him 'hell hound.' Yet Macbeth's utter confidence and belief in the witches' prophesy "None of woman born can harm Macbeth" Macbeth's 'charmed life' inspires Macbeth to accept Macduff's challenge. "I bear a charmed life which must not yield to one of woman born." The witches' prophesy leads him to ambition, provocation and above all extreme power fanning the flames of hatred. Macduff retorting Macbeth, the murderer of his "wife, children, servants, all That could be found." "----- Macduff was from him mother's womb. untimely ripped." The untimely birth of Macduff according to "Germanic mythology" invariably indicates heroic strength and Macduff ordering Macbeth to yield so that Macbeth could live to be "the show and gaze o'the time" "Painted upon a pole, and under writ "Here, may you see the tyrant." Macbeth hating to live as a subject of Malcolm fights and gets defeated by Macduff and Macduff enters with Macbeth's head hailing Malcolm as King. "Hail King of Scotland." Malcolm lavishly conferring honours on his thanes, kinsmen and even the "exiled friends abroad That fled the snares of watchful tyranny" and showing Macbeth's convictions "of this dead butcher and his fiend like queen" Malcolm extending for the supportive service of all. "So, thanks to all at once and to each one Whom we invite to see us crown'd at scone." The drastic period and violence coming to an end and the tragedy closes with a new King for Scotland. Shakespeare has ended his play, the tragedy "not with the crash of catastrophe but with a slight continuation of the action which (unites) the ebbing of the play to the vast flow of the river of continuous life." Shakespeare's Macbeth has tragic irony "Macbeth" is remarkable beyond any other of Shakespeare's plays for the frequency and power of its tragic irony." The verbal irony presented through the characters carries a lot of meaning effectively conveyed to the audience. Reference from various sources bring much weight and importance in a remarkable manner. (Act 2 Sc III, 8) "An Equivocator" - a reference to the doctrine of "Equivocation." Reference to the colours of spirits "Black spirits and white, red spirits and grey" add to the supernatural atmosphere present in carrying out evil deeds. Shakespeare's Macbeth has no underplot. His blank verse is free from being monotonous. To lower the "dramatic pitch" he has introduced prose giving a tint of domestic colouring. The part of the talk between Lady Macduff and her son. (Act IV Sc 2) Lady Macduff: "Sirrah, your father's dead: And what will you do now? How will you live? Son: As birds do mother. L.M.: What with worms and flies? Son: With what I get, I mean: and so do they." Prose is also used to add much effect to mirror forth the contrasting features in a scene. Shakespeare has not "drawn a veil" over the fate of his criminals. Instead he "brings them to a bad end." Macbeth getting subjected to face death, defeated to the very end, subjected to contempt, and scornfully condemned, the "Bellona's bridegroom" Macbeth, the great warrior. The use of blank verse in Macbeth Shakespeare has used blank verse, with weak stresses in a very effective manner Shakespeare has also used blank verse with weak stress to highlight certain incidents "of no'/ble hav'/ing a'nd of r'oy/al ho'pe". The stress in the third foot is not equal to that which comes in the other feet." A weak stress comes most often with a preposition "upo'n/the sight/less cou'/riers o'f/the air" There's inverted stress as in "va'ulting/ambi'/tion whi'ch/over lea'ps/itse'lf" There's also the extra syllable. Unstressed at the end of a line, called a double ending making Shakespeare's blank verse become more complex. "Tomo'r/row a'nd tomo'r/row a'nd tomo'r/(row)" (V5). There are abbreviations belonging to everyday speech, others to poetic usage. Shakespeare uses the rhyming couplet in a large scale and blank verse as a medium of "dramatic expression", consisting of "naturalness", "Freedom" and "variety" avoiding the monotony of rhythm. Shakespeare has mostly used the rhyming couplet as an "effective termination." That's indicating a conclusion. 'Macbeth', the tragedy by Shakespeare is full of irony, "the frequency and power of its tragic irony." The verbal irony takes the form of a special covering with pun on the words and presence of euphemism. "It is concluded: Banquo thy soul's flight If it find heaven must find it to night" and the variation of normal blank verse using double endings. The extra syllable at the end of a line "giving variety and carrying the sense of the rhythm to the next line." "My tho'ught/whose mu'r/der ye't/is bu't/fanta's(tical)" "and ta'ke/my mi'lk/for ga'll/ you mu'r/d'ring mi'n(isters)" Shakespeare's use of metaphor is superb. "The swift transition from one piece of imagery to another is one of the great characteristics of Shakespeare's mature style." (Sc 7 Act 1) Mrs. C. Ekanayake, Retd. Specialist Teacher Eng. Lit., St.
Anne's College, Kurunegala. |
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