Sunday, November 23, 2014

What are some examples of verbal irony in Macbeth?

In Act 2, Scene 3, Macduff and other lords come to wake Duncan and collect him so that they can be on their way.  Lennox tells Macbeth about all the strange things that happened last night: it was incredibly windy and wild outside, and one could hear weird screams in the air.  Macbeth agrees, saying, "'Twas a rough night" (2.3.36).  In so saying, Macbeth is actually referring to a great deal more than Lennox is. ...

In Act 2, Scene 3, Macduff and other lords come to wake Duncan and collect him so that they can be on their way.  Lennox tells Macbeth about all the strange things that happened last night: it was incredibly windy and wild outside, and one could hear weird screams in the air.  Macbeth agrees, saying, "'Twas a rough night" (2.3.36).  In so saying, Macbeth is actually referring to a great deal more than Lennox is.  It was a rough night for Macbeth because he was committing regicide and framing innocents for the murder.  Thus, his meaning is from different from what Lennox understands.  Further, it is an understatement as well because Macbeth means much more than he says.


Further, in Act 3, Scene 1, Macbeth refers to Banquo as "our chief guest" (3.1.11).  Such a statement seems complimentary, as though Banquo is the most important guest, but it actually has a meaning far different from the one Banquo understands.  He is the most important guest because he is the one most likely to pose a threat to Macbeth's reign.  His importance does not mean that he will be treated with honor; it will mean that he is most in danger.


Then, in Act 3, Scene 6, Lennox speaks to another lord about all the deaths of fathers and the flights of their sons, flights which seem to suggest the sons' guilt.  When speaking of Duncan's death, he says, "How it did grieve Macbeth! Did he not straight / In pious rage the two delinquents tear / That were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep? / Was not that nobly done"(3.6.12-15).  He says that it seemed to "grieve" Macbeth so much, but he says it sarcastically.  He implies that Macbeth's grief was false.  Moreover, he calls Macbeth's murder of the chamberlains the result of his "pious rage," implying that it was no such thing.  It was not, as he says, "nobly done."  He knows that Macbeth is a tyrant and very much suspects that he is to blame for the murders of Duncan and Banquo.

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