But all's too weak: For brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name-- Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel, Which smoked with bloody execution, Like valour's minion carved out his passage Till he faced the slave; Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps, And fix'd his head upon our battlements.
DUNCAN
O valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!
As in Aristotle’s formula for Greek tragedy set out in Poetics , the tragic hero must begin as “brave”, “valiant” and “worthy” before his hamartia (his “vaulting ambition”) overwhelms him. When we are (finally) introduced to Macbeth, it is immediately in these heroic terms, with the Captain extolling his strength, loyalty and righteousness. He is “Valour’s minion”, the personification of “Valour” elevating Macbeth’s heroism to almost mythical levels and “minion” suggesting favouritism and devotion (the more negative connotations of servitude appear to evolve in more modern use only). Macbeth’s strength as a soldier which marks him out as savage, but also as uncomplicated: his sole purpose on the battlefield is to kill. His actions are certainly brutal, as he “carve[s]” and “unseam[s]”, but there is a horrifying casualness to the verbs, implying a comically butcher-like savagery (perhaps prefiguring the “dead butcher” in Malcolm’s final speech). We see an almost hyperbolic aggressive masculinity, one which will be at odds with our own impression (and Lady Macbeth's) when we meet him. Macbeth’s weapon is his “brandished steel”, a sword he controls so supremely that it “smoked with bloody execution”. The blood and weapon here seem legitimate (unlike the dagger of Act 2 with its “gouts of blood” and “bloody business”), used to “fix [Macdonwald’s] head upon our battlements”. The traitor is punished, but Macbeth seems focused on violence, rather than the political situation of Scotland. The image of the decapitated head is one we will see again in the final scene (though the second time it will be physically on stage, a grittier realism than in the Captain's speech of rhetorical flourish). It creates an inevitability: once Macbeth becomes the traitor, his outcome is determined.
- Ka Keung, Ruiyun and George
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