Define Macbeth and Its Dramatic Irony.

Ans.

Introduction

Irony is one of the most bitter stinging spices, with which an audience in a theater may be served. The dramatic feast becomes more appetising and flavour some when it is seasoned with the sauce of irony. ‘Macbeth’ is full of this flavour because the whole atmosphere of it is charged with irony whether it is expressed in a situation or in the verbal speeches of the characters.

FORMS OF IRONY

There are several forms of dramatic irony, the chief of which are (1) the irony of fate or circumstance, (2) the verbal irony, and (3) Retrospective Irony.

Before illustrating these forms of irony in Macbeth’ we may note the exact meaning of this oft-recurring term in dramatic criticism. By irony is meant either a speech or a situation in which two opposite meaning are possible. The difference of meaning is the essence of irony, when a speaker on the stage for example, says one thing which the spectators interpret as another thing, there is dramatic irony. Or, the speaker on the stage is not aware of the meaning which the spectators give to it on account of their superior knowledge of the situation of the play. In other words, there is irony when we expect one thing and we find its opposite. Thus in all forms of irony their is a kind of mockery, a type of joke played by chance, fate, circumstance, and/or change. It is as it life sometimes played practical jokes on unsuspecting persons. It is as if a malignant spirit delighted in frustrating human hopes and expectations. That is why irony becomes a powerful instrument in the hands of tragic playwrights. There is a deep connection between irony and tragedy.

It is, therefore, said that the entire atmosphere of ‘Macbeth’, as of no other tragedy, is oppressive with the sense of something subtly malignant as well as inexorably revengeful in the forces that rule the world of a tragic irony in the ultimate scheme of things. Let us now see how such an impression of tragic irony is left on our minds when er read the play “Macbeth”.

(a) First we may note the irony of situation and circumstance, or the irony of fate itself. This is present in the promise and prophesy of the witches who represent fate. Their prediction is full of irony because they make Macbeth both happy and unhappy. He is happy when their predictions are fulfilled, that is, when he becomes the Thane of Glamis, of Cawdor and finally the King of Scotland. But their prophesy is so full of doubtful meanings that Macbeth is compelled to commit crime after crime till at last he is exposed, challenged and destroyed. For example Macbeth following the words of the witches wishes to secure his position on the throne by murdering Banquo to whom the witches have promised the future kingship of Scotland. But this murder of Banquo leads not to Macbeth’s security (as he hoped) but to his exposure and ruin because Banquo’s son Fleance escapes and in course of time becomes the future king, as the witches predicted. Thus Macbeth is made the victim of irony.

It is so also with the second prophecy of the witches, though here the irony is somewhat different. Macbeth here is assured of his safety. The visions tell him that he will not be harmed by any man born of woman, and until the wood of Birnam moves towards the castle. Macbeth is elated with these hopes. He becomes overconfident. But he is all the same killed precisely as the prophecy is the cause of the ruin. This is ironic indeed.

Macbeth himself realises this irony, when he says:

And be these juggling friends no more believed,

That palter with us in a double sense;

That keep the word of promise to our ear.

But break it to our hope.

Is it not decidedly ironical that Macbeth should thus curse the very witches whom ones be had welcomed and thanked? We thus see that irony is employed in the very texture of the tragedy since that tragedy arises out of the words of the witches in this play.

Apart from this irony, which may be called structural and integral to the whole of Macbeth, there are several parts of it spread over the different scenes and situations of the play. Of these we may note the following:

(a) Macbeth is honoured with the title and estated of Cawdor who had turned out to be traitor and was executed. When he achieves this honour Macbeth is already nursing his royal ambition and later on turns out to be more treacherous than Cawdor. The irony is deepened when we know that Cawdor was only a political rebel while Macbeth becomes a monster of ingratitude, kills the king who conferred that honour on him, let alone his being a guest at his house. And, further, we might note what Duncan said while describing the treachery of Cawdor. He exclaimed:

There is no art

To find the mind’s construction in the face;

He was a gentleman on whom I built

An absolute trust.

These words apply equally to Macbeth as to Cawdor, indeed more so because Cawdor’s act was not a regicide. Duncan placed absolute trust on Macbeth, complimented Lady Macbeth, as a very kind hostess and sent her a precious jewel as a gift before going to sleep during which, at the instigation of his “kind hostess”, trusted Macbeth ‘the worthiest Cousin’, killed him. The whole scene of murder, both before and after it, is charged with such touches of subtle but unmistakable irony.

(b) Side by side with these ironic situations, Macbeth literally abounds and overflows, worth examples of verbal irony. Almost every important speech of the major characters is punctuated with ironical remarks. The point about these remarks is that the speakers do not know that their remarks are ironical. They talk plainly, as they think, but their words suggest the opposite.

For example, take the very first words uttered by Macbeth after he is accosted by the witches. He says:

So foul and fair a day I have not seen,

(Act I, Scene III)

The plain meaning of his works is the varying fortunes of battle from which he has returned just then, and the variation of the weather from a storm to a calm. But to us his words have more than this meaning. We know that the witches used these very words at the opening scene namely, “Fair is foul and foul is fair”. Thus we see that Macbeth is himself experiencing within his mind such a strange mixture of ‘fair and foul’ namely his loyalty to Duncan and his royal ambition which could be fulfilled only by killing Duncan! Thus Macbeth is a tragic figure precisely because be reflects the tragic note which is a perversion of values-fair being foul and foul being fair. In other words, he is fair and royal outwardly but foul and treacherous inwardly. This is ironical in deeds.

Secondly, take the beautiful description of Macbeth’s castle given by Banquo and Duncan as they are about to enter it; it is full of poetry recalling summer scenes and bird-songs. “The air smells sweet,” they say, standing and admiring the peace and beauty of the place which arrests them for a moment. But we know what Macbeth’s castle is. It is a hell calling for the blood of Duncan. It is the tomb, a bloody tomb, of this innocent king who is admiring its pace and beauty.

And his irony is continuously present throughout the scene in small, verbal touches. Duncan keeps on addressing his hosts as ‘kind, courteous, worthy, and so forth, and the hosts return the compliment by hypocritical confessions of loyalty and the love. And we feel the irony of it all as we realise how man may smile and smile and be a villain.

Thus it is found that the perversion of value suggested by the line ‘foul is fair and fair is foul’ is once again illustrated in the ‘fair’. outside the castle and the ‘foul’ murder that takes place inside it.

Thirdly, as we listen to the porter in the scene which follows the murder we realise how ironical in the position when he says: “If a man were porter of the hell gate he should have grown old turning the key. I will devil porter it no further!”

We realise with a shock that he is indeed a porter to the gate of hell that Macbeth’s castle has become.

Fourthly, in the opening scene of the Third Act Macbeth, seeing Banquo, tells his wife: ‘He is our chief guest’,

The effect of these simple words which describe no more than a fact is highly ironical because we know what they suggest. We know that Duncan was a chief guest’ in the earlier scene of a banquet given in his honour, and the host becomes the murderer of the ‘chief guest’. The memory of this is fresh in our mind when we hear Macbeth’s reference to Banquo here. And this memory make us realise that this second ‘chief guest is going to get the same entertainment that the first royal guest got. It is a terrible form of dramatic irony. Again we see how ‘foul’ is the man who speaks these ‘fair’ words.

We refer to the words of Lady Macbeth spoken to Macbeth after the murder of King Duncan.

…….Go get some water,

And wash this filthy witness from your hand,

A little water clears us of this deed.

These words are recalled easily when in the sleep-walking scene Lady Macbeth feels the torture in her soul and she washes her hands to remove the “dammed spot”. The “small of the blood” stinks her nostrils and all the perfumes of Aralia cannot sweeten it.

There are many other instances also but here it is enough to show what form of dramatic irony is present in ‘Macbeth’.

(c) However, there is one more point made by Professor Quiller Couch in respect of a type of irony in ‘Macbeth which he calls ‘Retrospective Irony’.

He distinguishes this from prospective or prophetic Irony, which is usually present in dramas. This irony-the retrospective one-does not prepare the audience for what is to come. but “rather, when it comes, reminds him as by an echo that it has been coming all the while.”

Examples of this retrospective type of irony are the following:

(a) When Lady Macbeth hears Macbeth uttering words of horror at the sight of blood on his hands as he returns reclining with the blood of the murdered Duncan, she dismisses his horror with a cold, contemptible line A little water clears us of this need.

This of course is quite true if it is only the blood on the hands. But there is blood on the mind both of Macbeth and of his wife and that blood will never be washed and Lady Macbeth does not realise this till late in the action of the play when obsessed with remorse, she comes walking in sleep. It is then that dramatic irony comes as an echo from her former words, for she says:

“Here is the smell of the blood: all the All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand”,

This is retrospective irony, echoing from words uttered earlier in the play.

(b) A second example of retrospective irony is in the scene where Macbeth asks Banquo to be present in the feast. He tells him:

Fail not in our feast,

and Banquo promptly replies:

My lord I will not

There is no irony here as yet, It comes later when Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo. It is then that we realise how ironical is the presence of Banquo at the feast-but in what a form and in what a terrible sense! He comes as a ghost whereas he was intended to be present when alive.

That is why it has been well said that “Macbeth” is comparable to a corridor of dark Inverness (castle) which resounds with echoes which seem to be strange whispers of reminiscent irony”.