Confusion in Macbeth Essay -- Macbeth essays

Confusion in Macbeth The instances words and actions needing clarification in Shakespe ares tragedy Macbeth are numerous. Let us in this strain look at some of the more serious instances lacking clear meaning in the play. Lily B. Campbell in her volume of criticism, Shakespeares Tragic Heroes Slaves of Passion, confesses that critics are at a loss in trying to explain the reference to Bellonas stableman Macbeth is, indeed, Bellonas bridegroom, though critics come along rather at a loss to know just who Bellonas bridegroom may have been. (213) Blanche Coles states in Shakespeares Four Giants that there is a special K mistake which literary critics of the play make Not enough filter has been laid upon Duncans unaccountably sudden and arbitrary appointment of Malcolm to the royal taking over in the very hour of Macbeths triumph . . . . The insult to Macbeth (as it may have the appearance _or_ semblance to different minds), cannot be overemphasized. (40) Coles offers an e xplanation for this ambiguity in the play perhaps Shakespeare was taking for granted that his audience knew that the historian had said, Duncan did what in him lay to rip off him Macbeth of all manner of titles and claims, which might in time to come bring in to the crown. Malcolm was under age, and this fact made Macbeth first heir to the throne. (40-41) L.C. Knights in the essay Macbeth mentions equivocation, unreality and other possible causes of ambiguity within the play The equivocal nature of temptation, the commerce with phantoms consequent upon false choice, the resulting sense of unreality ( cipher is, but what is not), which has yet such power to smother critical function, th... ...e, NH Richard R. Smith Publisher, Inc., 1957. Coursen, H. R. Macbeth a Guide to the Play. Westport, CN Greenwood Press, 1997. Fergusson, Francis. Macbeth as the Imitation of an Action. Shakespeare The Tragedies. A Collectiion of searing Essays. Alfred Harbage, ed. Englewwod Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964. Knights, L.C. Macbeth. Shakespeare The Tragedies. A Collectiion of Critical Essays. Alfred Harbage, ed. Englewwod Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964. Mack, Maynard. Everybodys Shakespeare Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies. Lincoln, NB University of Nebraska Press, 1993. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. http//chemicool.com/Shakespeare/macbeth/full.html, no lin. Wilson, H. S. On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy. Toronto, Canada University of Toronto Press, 1957.