Although the Porter is rather drunk, the jokes that he makes about keeping Hell’s Gate become reality when Macduff discovers the terrible scene in the King’s bedroom.
He describes himself as the “devil-porter” letting people into “hell”. He is really Macbeth’s porter letting people into Macbeth’s castle and he is calling the castle a type of hell on Earth. This is a good example of dramatic irony as the reader knows what has been going on in the previous scene. Shakespeare uses a lot of dramatic irony in this particular scene.
This scene is also one of my favourite scenes as the language is a bit easier to understand and is different to the language in the other scenes. Shakespeare uses sentences such as, “Here’s a knocking indeed”, “If a man were porter of hell-gate” and “turning the key”. It is sometimes rather tedious reading a piece of text and not understanding all of it.
Another reason I like the language is that the words Shakespeare uses words related to hell to give the scene a lot more effect. He uses words such as “equivocator”, nouns such as “Beelzebub” and phrases such as “have napkins enow about you, here you’ll sweat”.
The Porter is also one of my favourite characters as he is humorous and it is good to have a funny scene in the midst of all the tragedy of this play.
Later on when Macbeth and Lennox are talking, we get the picture that Macbeth is upset and feels guilty for the deed he has committed because he says: “‘Twas a rough night.”
But we understand that he can still put his guilt behind him when Macduff returns horrified, Macbeth and innocently replies: “What’s the matter?”
Throughout this scene, we start to find what Macbeth is really like. As I have just said, he starts to feel guilty but pretty soon after that, he puts on an act and pretends he doesn’t know what Macduff is talking about.
Another person who has a split personality is Lady Macbeth. She is “like th’ innocent flower” but she acts like “the serpent under’t.”
Shakespeare again uses dramatic irony when Lady Macbeth asks what is going on, Macduff replies:
“ O gentle lady, ‘tis not for you to hear what I can speak; The repetition in a woman’s ear would murder as it fell.”
The reader knows that Lady Macbeth is really an evil and powerful woman but the characters in the play believe she is a “gentle lady” and cannot handle the terrible news of the death of the king.
As the story progresses, Macbeth admits that he has killed the guards for the “violent love” he has for Duncan. This tells the reader he is week and does not believe that he has the strength to lie. Lady Macbeth, once again, takes charge and faints to save her husband.
This scene consists of one of my favourite characters, the Porter, it shows us what Macbeth is really like and what Lady Macbeth is really like and that is why it is my favourite scene.
