MACBETH
[Aside] Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme.--I thank you, gentlemen.-- [Aside] This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill, cannot be good: if ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success, Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor: If good, why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, Against the use of nature? 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.
Macbeth goes back into a dramatic aside, showing his growing excitement as “two truths are told” and he begins to believe the third “imperial theme” will follow. Macbeth, it seems, is beginning to trust the supernatural, and his lust for power is “swelling”, getting bigger and taking its own form. That the first prophecies are “prologues” suggests he considers his fate to be inevitable, already written and foretold (in the same way, he will later refer to himself as just an “actor”, playing out his own life). His ambitious speculating is truncated and he momentarily turns to the others on stage, the caesura “--” indicating that this is no longer an aside, and that this ambition is hidden behind a controlled exterior. He shows here that he is already adapted to the need for a courteous façade (and does not need Lady Macbeth’s later warning to “look like the innocent flower”). As Macbeth continues his aside, his murderous desires are brought to life, an explicit recognition of his ambition for the first time in the play. Despite these overt thoughts of murder, Macbeth remains ambivalent (in contrast to Lady Macbeth’s reaction to the news), and his speech shows the way in which he is torn between his thoughts as he tries to apply reason to these “supernatural solicitings”. He is well aware of the contradictions inherent in his logic, and realises that the prophecies “cannot be ill, cannot be good”. The line quickly bounces from one extreme to the other, held in balance by the equal weighting of syllables as if reason is being measured on the scales of justice. Whilst not really an oxymoron, it alludes to the paradoxes of the witches and the language of equivocation, suggesting the control the supernatural has over him. The contradictions continue, moving rapidly from “good” to “ill” to “success” to “horrid”, the rhythms of the line and the contorted syntax reflecting the back-and-forth of Macbeth’s conflicted mind. This is not, though, a chaotic speech: Macbeth’s thoughts and language is condensed and deliberate. There is a logic to his argument, albeit a twisting and tortuous one; for the first time, Macbeth equivocates in an attempt to justify what is clearly a bad idea. He has moments of confidence; it is easy to imagine pride when he says “I am thane of Cawdor”, and he seems not to care the prophecy’s origins but only its truth. These swing, though, quickly to fear: he “yield[s]” to their words, implying the witches’ control (in contrast to the defiance of the soldier “disdaining fortune” in 1.2 and his refusal to “yield” to Macduff in 1.8). The fear is expressed through the physical response of the body: his hair “doth unfix” and his “seated heart” is made to “knock” – here a metaphor, but a fear of knocking that will become realised in 2.2 and the Porter’s scene, where there are 26 references to it. The “horrible imaginings”, the frightening implications of murder, terrifies him far more than the “present fears” of battle and we realise that, for all the influence of the supernatural, he understands what he is doing. He talks of the way his imagination has “smothered” his reason, with connotations of repression and death in contrast to the earlier growth of “swelling” ambition. There is something emasculating about the image of Macbeth’s fears, and the process of reflecting on his ambitions and his fears seems to dampen his urges for action. His final line is disconcerting, with the paradox of “nothing is but what is not” expressing the dislocation between what he can hold on to as real and what is an illusion, boundaries that will be repeatedly tested through the play.
- Kate, Ella, Ruiyun