Also, the tree carried in the child's hand shows just how Birnam wood will come to Macbeth's castle - it will be carried by soldiers using branches and saplings as camouflage. Of course, by the end of the play, Macbeth is dead, and Malcolm is about to be crowned king. Macbeth himself recognizes that the crowned child is the son of a king, and it's generally agreed that the child stands for Malcolm, who is the son of Duncan. To Macbeth it's as though he's just learned that he will never be defeated, but the appearance of the apparition tells a different story. This apparition assures Macbeth that "Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until / Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill / Shall come against him" (4.1.92-94). The third apparition is a " Child crowned, with a tree in his hand" (4.1.86, s.d.). At the end of the play, in his last battle, Macbeth learns that "Macduff was from his mother's womb / Untimely ripp'd" (5.8.15-16). This sounds like it means that no man can harm Macbeth, because every man is born of woman. The second apparition is a " bloody Child" (4.1.76, s.d.), which advises Macbeth to "Be bloody, bold, and resolute laugh to scorn / The power of man, for none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth" (4.1.81). The second meaning of the armed head becomes clear only at the end of the play, when Macduff, after defeating Macbeth in hand-to-hand combat, cuts off Macbeth's head and displays it to his soldiers. The surface meaning of the armed head is obvious: Macduff, in armor, will come at the head of an army to fight against Macbeth. The first apparition is an " armed Head" (4.1.67, s.d.) which warns Macbeth to beware of Macduff. When Macbeth goes to the witches to learn his fate, they call up apparitions, and the apparitions equivocate. In the Porter's words, drink "provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance: therefore, much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery" (2.3.30-32). Later in the same scene, the Porter jokes with Macduff that liquor is an equivocator because it makes a man horny, but keeps him from doing anything about it. It sounds like they mean that he will never have a reason to fear, because trees can't walk, but it turns out that men can carry branches they have cut, so that the "wood" comes to the castle in that sense. For example, they tell him that he has no need to fear until Birnam wood comes to his castle. Later in the play, the Witches, serving the devil, equivocate with Macbeth. A Catholic equivocator could lie and tell the Protestants what they wanted to hear, but God would know that what the Catholic said was really the truth in another sense. The solution to the problem, Garnet said, was equivocation. On the other hand, it was a sin against God to lie under oath. If the Catholics admitted that they were Catholics, they would be in serious trouble with the Protestants. APPARITIONS IN MACBETH HOW TOThis passage is often considered to be a reference to Henry Garnet, a Jesuit of Shakespeare's time who wrote a "A Treatise of Equivocation." He wrote the "Treatise" in order to tell other Catholics how to deal with dangerous questions from Protestant inquisitors. Among the sinners that he pretends to welcome into hell is an "equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale" (2.3.8-9). In the scene in which Macduff discovers the bloody corpse of King Duncan, the Porter, still suffering the effects of a night of drinking, pretends that he is the gatekeeper of hell. Even though Banquo doesn't use the word "equivocation," it's what he's talking about. Banquo is warning Macbeth that the witches could lure him to great evil by telling small truths. Just after he has been named Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth is wondering if he can believe the rest of the witches' prophecies, and Banquo remarks, "oftentimes, to win us to our harm, / The instruments of darkness tell us truths, / Win us with honest trifles, to betray's / In deepest consequence" (1.3.123-126).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |