Some notes on Shakespeare's use of Language in Macbeth


1. Act 1, scene 3

In this scene, soliloquies allow us to know that Macbeth is thinking one thing while he says another.

In l 116 he thinks Glamis and Thane of Cawdor/The greatest is behind but in l 117 he says Do you not hope your children shall be kings.. In other words, he is thinking about himself and how two of the three things the witches said have come true; yet he pretends to be thinking, politely, about what they said to his fellow general, Banquo.

In l 127 he thinks Two truths are told.... yet he says - in the middle of the soliloquy which lets us into his thoughts - I thank you gentlemen . He appears to be thinking only of thanking Rosse and Angus for bringing the good news that he is now the new Thane of Cawdor; yet he is thinking about the two out of three greetings that are now true.

In l 149 he says, explaining why he appeared lost in thought, my dull brain was wrought /With things forgotten yet we know he had been thinking not dully but very sharply about whether he needed to kill Duncan or just let events take their course: my thought whose murder yet is but fantasticaland If Chance will have me King, why, Chance may crown me without my stir...

2. Act 3, scene 1

Macbeth has become a practised liar, seeming to speak fair but foul in his thoughts and motives. Here, he wants Banquo, who suspects him of complicity in Duncan's murder, dead. Yet he pretends to want his advice at a Council meeting, his presence at an evening feast and to have a harmless interest in his plans for the afternoon.We do not need a soliloquy to tell us Macbeth's real thoughts as he says, 'Tonight we hold a solemn supper , Sir, /And I'll request your presence' Macbeth is plotting to have him ambushed and killed before then.

His innocent - sounding questions Ride you this afternoon?..... Is't far you ride? and Goes Fleance with you? hide the fact that he is harvesting information for the ambush.When he has dismissed the nobles, we read his thoughts in a soliloquy and learn that he feels For Banquo's issue have I fil'd [defiled/damned] my mind and that Under him / My Genius is rebuk'd [my status is challenged].

Yet Macbeth then gives the murderers an entirely different motive for killing Banquo, telling them it was he, in the times past, which held you/So under fortune; in other words, that Banquo is to blame for the sorry state of Scotland and not Macbeth.

Macbeth's public words mask his private thoughts, so that foul sounds fair.

We should note that Macbeth uses language to taunt the murderers' manhood to encourage them to do the killing. Furthermore, he uses sarcasm: Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men/As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels....are clept / All by the name of dogs.He is suggesting that they may be men, but not the most masculine of men unless they can prove it to him by killing Banquo.

We should also note how Shakespeare allows Macbeth's language to create rich ironies, as when Macbeth tells Banquo Fail not our feast, and he replies My Lord, I will not. Macbeth claims to wear our health but sickly in his life/Which in his death were perfect yet when Banquo is dead he will be more mentally ill and paranoid than ever.

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