Role of Language in Shakespeare The Tragedy of Macbeth Mr. Stultz
Before: After: Shakespeare: Fulcrum of English Language Master of 4 Genres: 1.Tragedies (Hamlet, Lear, Othello, Macbeth) 2.Comedies (Midsummer Night s Dream) 3.Histories (Henry IV, Richard III, Julius
Purpose of His Language For the stage, not for the page. To be heard, not just to be read. To be acted out in front of a live audience, not just visualized in the mind. Shakespeare never wrote to be published; he wrote for the stage. His actors later assembled their lines and published his collected works after he died.
Your Goals as New Readers Practice unraveling uncommonly-structured sentences Study the poetic use of uncommon words. Actors study Shakespeare s dialogue and express it dramatically in word and in action so that its meaning is graphically enacted. If the reader studies Shakespeare s lines as an actor does, looking up and reflecting upon the meaning of unfamiliar words until real voice is discovered, he or she will suddenly experience the excitement, the depth and the sheer poetry of what these characters say.
Shakespeare s Sentences Today, sentence structure follows a sequence of subject first, verb second, and an optional object third. Shakespeare, however, often places the verb before the subject, which reads, Speaks he rather than He speaks. Inversions like these are not troublesome, but when Shakespeare positions the predicate adjective or the object before the subject and verb, we are sometimes surprised. Lady Macbeth demonstrates this inversion as she speaks of her husband: Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be/what thou art promised (I.v.14-15). In current English word order, this quote would begin, You are Glamis, Cawdor, and will be what you are promised.
Interruptions Look at how the Captain first introduces Macbeth: For brave Macbeth well he deserves that name Disdaining Fortune, with his brandish d steel, Which smoked with bloody execution, Like valor s minion carved out his passage Till he faced the slave; (I.ii.18-22) The delay between subject Macbeth and verb carved is separated by 5 phrases (19 words). What is the effect of these phrases upon the listener of Macbeth s exploits?
Intentionally Vague Language Shakespeare often uses intentionally vague language for ambiguity, double meaning, and to spare syllables. Of course, the witches: Something wicked this way comes. (IV.i.45) Notice Macbeth s first soliloquy: If it were done when tis done, then twere well It could be done quickly. (I.vii.1-2) What is it? Why can t Macbeth bring himself to say what it is?
Shakespeare s Words & Phrases No longer in use today Anon: shortly Avaunt!: go away! Beseech: to beg Cuckold: man married to an adultress Ere: before Poor cat i th adage : a cat that wanted fish, but was unwilling to wet her feet to catch them. Connection? Macbeth, like the cat in the adage, wants to be king but hesitates to kill to get it.
Wordplay Shakespeare s most frequently used types of wordplay are common: metaphors, similes, synecdoche and metonymy, personification, allusion, and puns. Most common: metaphor, simile. After trying to kill a father and son, Macbeth describes the son, who escaped as: There the grown serpent lies, the worm that s fled Hath nature that in time will venom breed, No teeth for the present. (III.iv.29-31)
How Shakespeare reveals his characters: 1. What characters say to each other 2. What characters say about other characters 3. What characters say to themselves 4. What characters do (actions). Notice: 3 of the 4 deal with Language
Language is Power: The pen is mightier than the sword. He who controls language, controls others Language (argument) is used to attain and maintain position by royalty, between nations, by clergy in the church. The pen is mightier than the sword. Macbeth rises to power through the Captain s monologue. Duncan doesn t see him in battle; he hears of him in battle. Macbeth seeks to become King after hearing the witches prophecies, writing a letter to his wife, and through her convincing speech screw your courage to the sticking place
Macbeth is won over by language from women The Witches provide Macbeth the nouns: All hail, Macbeth, Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, That shalt be King hereafter. (I.iii.50-53) Lady Macbeth provides Macbeth the verbs: Look like the time. Bear welcome Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under t. Leave all the rest to me. (I.v.66-76)
Types of speeches Long Ones Monologue: one actor to other actors on stage Soliloquy: one actor to audience, alone on stage Short Ones: Aside: one actor to another, under one s breath Monosyllabic: one syllable sentences
Blank Verse: Unrhymed Iambic Pentameter Shakespeare saves poetry (blank verse) for his characters of noble birth. Prose is used to represent the speech habits of the common people (though still imaginative, poetic) Bougeoisie (nobles) = iambic pentameter (poetry) Proletariat (commoners) = prose
Types of Language in Macbeth Poetry (Blank Verse) Macbeth: thoughtful, poetic iambic pentameter (elevates him above rest) Lady Macbeth: plain, unimaginative iambic pentameter Bleeding Captain: strong, harsh, war-like iambic pentameter Poetry (Rhyming Couplets) Witches: short, choppy iambic tetrameter Prose Porter (servant): dark, bawdy common language; paragraphs (II.iii) pg. 86
Blank Verse: Unrhymed Iambic Pentameter -Employs a rhythm native to the English language -Penta = 5 (sets of iambs; 10 syllables per line) Iamb = one foot of meter [ ~ / ]); bah bum ; soft sounding -Most two-syllable names are trochaic [ / ~] bum bah - Michael (too harsh sounding) Look at I.ii.9-25, pg. 22 As two spent swimmers, that do cling together
Blank Verse: Unrhymed Iambic Pentameter -Penta = 5 (sets of iambs; 10 syllables per line) 1 2 3 4 5 As two spent swim mers, that do cling to gether
Blank Verse: Unrhymed Iambic Pentameter Example of Blank Verse: ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ / As two spent swim mers, that do cling to gether The final syllable of these verses receives stress and is said to have a hard, or strong, (male) ending. A soft ending, also said to be weak, (female) receives no stress.
Great Chain of Being - scala naturae : literally, "natural ladder - concept of God's strict and natural hierarchical structure of the universe. 1. God Angels Kings 2. Queens Archbishops Dukes 3. Duchesses Bishops Marquises 4. Deacons Knights 5. Local Officials Ladies-in- Waiting Priests 6. Monks Squires Pages Messengers Merchants 7. Shopkeepers Tradesmen Yeomen Farmers Soldiers 8. Household Servants Tennant Farmers Shepherds 9. Herders Beggars Actors Thieves 10. Pirates Gypsies Animals Birds Worms Plants Rocks
The King-Thane Relationship Thane: One who oversees lands of the King and agrees to defend those lands whenever summoned. Comitatus: the basic idea that everyone protects the king at all costs even if it means a warrior giving up his own life. If a king is killed, the warriors must avenge the death of the king or they can no longer serve as warriors for the next king.
Worst Crimes in Elizabethan England 1.Regicide: murder of king (equivalent to killing God) 2. Parricide: murder of a parent or family member Regicide: Inverting the Great Chain Murderers become King/Queen. Witches become advisers. Earth becomes tied to hell, instead of heaven. Thanes kill rather than protect. The good become evil. The eloquent lose voice. Plants, animal kindgoms affected.
Great Chain of Being Natural Order Highest in Macbeth (beginning of play): 1.Duncan 2.Prince of Cumberland (Malcolm) 3.Donaldbain 4.Thanes of Cawdor (traitor) 5.Thane of Glamis (Macbeth) 6.Banquo Lowest: Witches The Very Lowest: Those who commit Regicide
Equivocation: Language of confusion; ambiguity; double meanings; half-truths; paradoxes; riddles Foul is fair and fair is foul nothing is but what is not Lesser than Macbeth and greater. Equivocal Morality: How do you know what s good, or who s good, if there s overlap between good and evil? These solicitings cannot be evil, cannot be good
Malcolm: Say to the King the knowledge of the broil As thou didst leave it. Captain: Doubtful [pause] it stood, As two spent swimmers that do cling together And choke their art. The captain continues Malcolm s verse line. He misses a syllable, perhaps for breath. Then he adds a metaphor, suggesting the speech was rehearsed
1.2: Bleeding Captain Similes: comparisons As two spent swimmers, that do cling together And choke their art. Like valour's minion And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, Show'd like a rebel's whore. Yes, as sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion In other words: Yes. Like the sparrow dismays the eagle or the rabbit dismays the lion.
As two spent swimmers. The sergeant is explaining that the two sides of the battle were both exhausted yet each impeding the other s victory Rebel s whore. There s also no whore on the battlefield. But fortune (the mythical figure, blindfolded and spinning her wheel) is smiling like a woman who gets paid to convince men she loves them on Macdonwald s cause. Like Valor s minion. Macbeth fights his way to Macdonwald like the special favorite or pet of valour (bravery, fortitude, etc.). Notice the nature or quality of the simile/metaphor. Notice how Fortune smiles
Act I, Scene 2, cont. Blood Imagery: until Macbeth brandished his steel, which smoked with bloody execution. Macbeth carved his way through Macdonwald s men until he came face-to-face with the slave (Macdonwald)... at which point Macbeth unseamed him (Macdonwald) from the nave to the chops and stuck his head upon the battlements.
Dramatic Irony We know what characters don t. Suggests supernatural control (god-like author mimicked by witches) 1.3.38: Macbeth (Echoes the witches): So foul and fair a day I have not seen More equivocation, Foreshadowing
Human beings are endowed with an imagination that can be wonderful but also terrible too (equivocation!). Critic Harold Bloom has called Macbeth a tragedy of the imagination. Partly what makes Macbeth so disturbing, Bloom argues, is that we identify with him, or at least with his imagination. And if we can think it, might not we too be capable of similar acts? Think about how Macbeth uses imagination to propel events and how imagination affects him: Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings: My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man that function Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is But what is not. (1.3.150-155)
Present fears = What I am afraid of now Are less than horrible imaginings = is not as scary as what I think might happen My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical = I have fantasized about murder but it s just thoughts Shakes so my single state of man that function = But my thoughts shake me up so much that I can t function Is smother d in surmise and nothing is = and my actions are stalled by my imaginings and nothing real is important But what is not = But what I imagine is
Major Forms of Imagery Animal: The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan ; horses eating each other Light / Dark: murder first done at night, then during the day; Let not light see my dark and deep desires Clothing: Why do you dress me in borrowed robes. ; Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould But with the aid of use
Major Forms of Imagery Weather: When shall we three meet again In thunder, lightning, or in rain? Gender: Unsex me here ; If you were a man Sickness: If thou couldst, Doctor, cast The water of my land, find her disease And purge it to a sound and pristine health Appearance vs. Reality: Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under t
Major Forms of Imagery: Blood
Clothing and baby images Macbeth (1.3.108): The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me in borrowed robes? (prose) Macbeth (1.3.108): [Aside to Banquo]: Do you not hope your children shall be kings?
Time (tomorrow and tomorrow) Macbeth struggles with predestination, restlessness. Ignores Banquo s garment image and completes either Banquo s verse line or his own! (1.3.145-149) If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me Without my stir. Banquo: New honors come upon him Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mold But with the aid of use. Macbeth [aside]: Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.