Banquet Scene

Context of the scene A banquet has been set. Macbeth and wench Macbeth enter as King and Queen of Scotland, followed by their court amongst the noblemen in attendance argon Sir Ross and Sir Lennox. As Macbeth walks among the company, the first murderer appears at the doorway. Macbeth speaks to him for a moment, learning that Banquo is dead, barely Fleance has escaped. This scene, comm muchover known as the Banquet Scene, is quite a an important scene in the play because its a crook point in Macbeths life. Indeed, this is simultaneously the high point of Macbeths reign and the beginning of his downfall.In a first part, well explore the duality of Macbeths character, and show how full of opposers this scene is. And in a second part, well represent how this slowly becomes the beginning of the end for Macbeth. 1. Duality &amp encounter This scene depicts a clear picture of Macbeths confusing affirm of head teacher. We indeed get a lot of different reactions from him throug h extinct this scene, reactions that are just as sudden as they are opposite. First of all, the arriver of the courtiers and the murderers almost simultaneously shows clearly the duality of Macbeth as King and criminal.It is as if these two sides of him are present in the same room, personified by the noblemen and the murderer. At first, Macbeth is pleased with the news he just received and the murderer, praising him and cogent him he is the best, the nonpareil (without equal) moreover, Macbeths own supposed invincibility is shown I had else been consummate(a)/ Whole as the marble, founded as the rock,/ As broad and general, as the type air. He is the King and he clearly feels like null and nobody can stop him anymore. He feels powerful.But on hearing the uninvited news that Fleance has escaped his treachery, Macbeths language abruptly changes But now I am cabind, cribbed, confind, bound in / To saucy doubts and fears. (2526). The alliteration of the hard c sounds reveals Mac beths sense of constraint, in contrast to the freedom and power which he claims to subscribe to enjoyed previously. It plunges him patronize into insecurity. Then Lady Macbeth intervenes and brings him back to reason and the banquet itself. go to his guests, Macbeth goes to sit at the head of the royal table but finds Banquos spook sitting in his chair.Horror-struck, Macbeth starts speaking nonsense to the weirdo, which is invisible to the remnant of the company Which of you have d wholeness this? The guests, confused by his behavior, think that he is ill What, my Good Lord? / Gentlemen rise, his Highness is not well. Lady Macbeth makes excuses for her husband, reflexion that he occasionally has such(prenominal) visions my Lord is often thus/ And hath been from his callowness/ she then(prenominal) tell them they should simply ignore Macbeth, because acknowledging his behavior would offend him The fit in is momentary, upon a thought/ He will again be well. She then draws Macbeth aside and attempts to soothe him by asserting that the vision is merely a painting of his fearjust like the air-drawn dagger he sawing machine earlier (60). She once again questions his manhood to try to snap him out of his trance Are you a man? Ignoring her at first, Macbeth continues to address the weirdie and charges him to speak but it disappears. After Lady Macbeth scolds him for being unmanned in folly (73), Macbeth finally recovers, returning to his guests and claiming that he has a strange complaint which is nothing / To those that know me and which they should ignore (85).As with the ethereal dagger, the ghost of Banquo appears to come and go, move Macbeth into alternating fits of courage and despair. Lady Macbeth tries to soothe her husband. In contrast to the pressing horror of Macbeths addresses to the gruesome apparitions are moments of comparative calm. Each time the ghost vanishes, Macbeths relief is recorded in softer, more lyrical expression, for exemp le when he says ulterior on in the scene Can such things be / And inhibit us like a summers cloud, / Without our special wonder? (112114).So the entire social construction of this scene shows a man swinging from one state of mind to another, recalling the structure of the earlier dagger speech. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, stay constant in her judgment. Unlike Macbeth, she cannot see the ghost, and her tone is typically hard-nosed and down-to-earth When alls done, / You look but on a stool. She appears to want to calm his rages, but anger simmers beneath her conciliatory words. It is unclear whether Banquos ghost really sits in Macbeths chair or whether the spirits presence is only a hallucination inspired by guilt.Macbeth, of course, is buddy-buddy with supernatural events and characters, so there is no reason to discount the chess opening that a ghost actually stalks the halls. Some of the apparitions that appear in the play, such as the floating dagger in Act 2, sce ne 1, and the unwashable neckcloth that Lady Macbeth perceives on her hands in Act 4, appear to be more psychological than supernatural in origin, but even this is uncertain. These pass apparitions or hallucinations reflect the sense of metaphysical dread that consumes the royal play off as they feel the fateful force of their deeds coming back to haunt them. So, serie of oppositions in Macbeths behavior itself in characters (Macbeth Lady Macbeth) and opposition reality/surnatural. 2. The downfall of King Macbeth The news of Fleances escape angers Macbeth if only Fleance had died, he muses, his throne would have been secure. preferably, hes now delay for the time Fleance will come back to seek revenge The dirt ball thats fled / Hath nature that in time will venom comprehend (2829). Throughout Macbeth, as in many of Shakespeares tragedies, the supernatural and the touched appear in grotesque form as omens of wickedness, moral corruption, and downfall.Macbeths bizarre behavio r puzzles and disturbs his subjects, confirming their impression that he is mentally troubled. notwithstanding the tentativeness and guilt she displayed in the previous scene, Lady Macbeth here appears surefooted and stronger than her husband, but even her attempts to explain away her husbands hallucination are ineffective when paired with the evidence of his behavior. The contrast between this scene and the one in which Duncans body was discovered is strikingwhereas Macbeth was once inhuman and confident, he now allows his anxieties and visions to get the best of him.The rich banquet, a symbol of great orderliness and generosity, now becomes a hellish parody of itself. Instead of Macbeth sitting in the midst, dispensing his largesse as he would wish, his throne has been usurped by the bloody apparition of his former friend. Macbeths language reflects this change. The ghost, so hideous that it would alert the devil, appears to have risen from a grave or a charnel-house. iii ti mes Macbeth sees the ghost, and three times he appears to recover his senses. This alternating structure adds strongly to the impression of Macbeths loss of control.The short scene is dominated by the repeated word blood and by the idea that a soar of murder has now been initiated which Macbeth is powerless to stop. As noted previously, it is here that the down spiral picks up pace. Macbeth, having harvested the benefits of his regicide, is beginning to see the down side of his actions. He is seen publicly as a madman, a fact reinforced by his wifes comments that the fit witnessed has been an illness of long standing. Macbeth also refers to tomorrow (133), indicating to the audience that there is more reckoning to come.Once he sees the ghost, his image as King is changed, tarnished with questions of madness. Macbethbegins to question his sanity, he cant believe his eyes, yet he cannot look away from Banquos ghost. In attend of his dinner guests, he acts in an unstable, irrational manner. At this point, King Macbeth has confused some of the respect and admiration of his court. His subjects do not look at him the same way later on this scene. Macbeth begins the slow descent into madness after this scene, losing his ability to control the future, something that he has killed to achieve.