Wang 1
Cindy Wang
Doran/Matheny
Honors 10thLiterature
21 November 2016
“Macbeth”: The Irony in Insanity
A certain kind of psychosis can make a person strong where they were once weak – and reckless where they were once meek. There is a glorious sense of irony to that situation. However, this power has a price: along with the sacrifice of sanity and morality come fitful sleep, strange hallucinations, and a piercing remorse. Throughout Act III of his play “Macbeth,” Shakespeare builds dramatic irony in the events surrounding Banquo’s death to emphasize Macbeth’s descent into tyranny and madness, showing that with each additional murder an oppressor commits, the more he is controlled by his own fear and guilt.
Shakespeare uses irony to show that in the throes of his agitation, Macbeth decides to slaughter his former friend, an action fueled purely by paranoia.Shortly before his demise, Banquo reveals his suspicions about Macbeth, musing that “Thou hast it now – king, Cawdor, Glamis, all/As the Weird Women promised, and I fear/Thou played’st most foully for ‘t” (III,i,1).At this point, the audience knows exactly what Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have done in their avarice for the throne.The irony lies in Banquo’s deep worry, and in his clinging to the Macbeth he once knew as a comrade and brother in arms. He does not realize that that Macbeth died the same night he killed Duncan.Later, Macbeth shares his response to Banquo’s suspicions – as well as his own fears – in a soliloquy; he is confused that the witches “hailed [Banquo] father to a line of kings,” and concerned that “Upon [his] head they placed a fruitless crown” (III,i,65).Reflecting upon the witches’ prophesies leads Macbeth to consider Banquo a serious threat, despite the messages’ vagueness and equivocation.Afraid to lose his newfound power, Macbeth gives up his morals and asserts the role of a tyrant to eliminate any who may pose a danger to his rule. Not even Lady Macbeth, Macbeth’s partner in crime and the dominant power of the pair, knows what her husband plots. Macbeth reassures her, telling his wife to “Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,/Till thou applaud the deed” (III,ii,35). Later, Shakespeare shows that Lady Macbeth does not condone Banquo’s murder;even Macbeth’s wife, whom Shakespeare portrays as ruthless and ambitious herself, is quite disturbedwhen she finally hears of her husband’s latest despicable deed.
After hiring two murderers to rid him of Banquo and his son Fleance, Macbeth attempts to motivate his assassins by launching into a lengthy tirade, blaming all their misfortunes on another unfortunate man: Banquo.Macbeth raves to his men “That it was he, in the times past, which held you/So under fortune, which you thought had been/Our innocent self,” even adding that “To half a soul and to a notion crazed/Say ‘Thus did Banquo’” (III,i,83). It is simply unfeasible that Banquo was the cause for every calamity experienced in the murderers’ lives – yet the two world-weary men ironically agree with Macbeth’s irrational arraignment, directing their anger and hatred onto their victim despite the foolishness of the accusation:“So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune,/That I would set my lie on any chance,/To mend it, or be rid on't” (III, i,127). The ironic impossibility of Macbeth’s claims helps develop both his fearful desperation to destroy a possible challenger and his newfound ability to exterminate enemies without compunction.
Macbeth’s speech at his dinner party seems lighthearted on the surface, but comes across with a much darker tone once the audience reflects on Banquo’s death. When the time for King Macbeth’s banquet comes, he formally states that “Here had we now our country’s honor roofed,/Were the graced person of our Banquo present/Who may I rather challenge for unkindness/Than pity for mischance” (III,iv,46). The entirety of Macbeth’s speech is laced with irony, as he vocalizes to his gathered lords that he hopes Banquo simply decided to stay away rather than suffer some accident along the road.The lords, of course, do not yet know that Macbeth himself was the cause of such an “accident”.Shakespeare uses Macbeth’s continued ironic commentary on Banquo’s murder to show the true depth of the corruption in his character; since becoming king, Macbeth has become both infatuated with his power and plagued by the guilt of regicide and murder.
In a handful of scenes, Shakespeare captures Macbeth’s moral and mental demise through a series of ominous – but ironic – dialogues. While the plummet into madness can often cause despair, in others it fosters a unique depravity. Clutching his bloody crown as tightly as he can, Macbeth puts on the smooth, pristine mask of an honorable ruler while continuing to lie and kill for the sake of his sovereignty. Only when that mask cracks does Shakespeare reveal a flicker of the true irony of Macbeth’s downward spiral into outright tyranny and insanity.
Word count: 792