Language Dramatice Expression In Macbeth
Language: Dramatice Expression In Macbeth
Macbeth’s sensibility is jolted by the confrontation with evil and the soliloquies reflect unrest, indecision, and fear in a style of broken, meditative flashes of thought. Macbeth’s poetry is an expression of his spiritual conflict. The magnificence of his poetry is a measure of his sensitive soul. His emotional states are reflected in the rhythms of his speech. As Macbeth feels the moment of crime draw near, the language rises and the imagery begins to flow:
“…and wither’d murder,
Alarum’d by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
With Tarquin’s ravishing strides, toward his design
Moves like a ghost.”
(Act 2, Scene I)
The same meditative eloquence can be seen just before Banquo’s murder:
“Light thickens, and the crow,
Makes wing to th’ rooky wood;
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;
Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.”
(Act 3, Scene II)
Macbeth’s language always shows a strain of hyperbole when he is under pressure. After Duncan’s murder he launches into a poetic description of sleep:
“…the innocent sleep,
“Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care…
The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast-“
(Act 2, Scene II)
When forced to explain why he murdered the two grooms he comes out with a highly descriptive picture of Duncan’s dead body:
“Here lay Duncan,
His silver skin lac’d with his golden blood;
And his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature
For ruin’s wasteful entrance:”
(Act 2 Scene III)
Macbeth’s torture of mind gives rise to a profusion of images. But as his imagination is replaced by a mere weary lack of feeling, the rhythm of his speech becomes monotonous. There is a slow hopeless beat in:
“To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,”
(Act 5, Scene V)
Nevertheless Macbeth is still a poet:
“Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more;”
(Act 5, Scene V)
And there is a dignity in his calm acceptance of the dreadful finality of nothingness.
Lady Macbeth’s language is in stark contrast to that of Macbeth. Whereas Macbeth utters the most profound responses of the play. Lady Macbeth’s language contains a literalness which is indicative of her character. Lady Macbeth sees nothing but the promise of the crown. She has no imaginative flights of fancy, experience no torture of the mind. She is a...