Describe the porter-scene of Macbeth and comment on its dramatic

Describe the porter-scene of Macbeth and comment on its dramatic significance.

Ans.

1. Introduction

In ancient Greek tragedies there was no mixture of the comic with the tragic elements in a single play. The ancient Greek tragedians presented on the stage an unrelieved succession of tragic and sorrowful events such as murder and bloodshed. They did not seem to believe in giving any sort of dramatic relief to the audience in the midst of the pity and terror of tragic events. Aristotle also favoured this practice. His view was that such mixture of the comic and the serious weakened the tragic effect. Being an original dramatist of great genius, Shakespeare does not agree with this classical practice.

2. Dramatic relief in Shakespeare’s tragedies

By introducing comic scenes in the midst of tragic or serious scenes, Shakespeare provides a sort of relaxation to the tense mind of his audience. The great thing about his comic scenes of this type is that they do not contribute to the weakening of tragic effect. They rather intensify the tragic effect by means of the contrast they provide. The grave-diggers scene in Hamlet, the brief mob-scene in Julius Caesar, the antics and witticisms of the Fool in King Lear, and the Porter scene in Macbeth are all employed to serve the same end. Their dual function is to relieve the dramatic tension and to intensify the effect of the tragedy at one and the same time.

Besides the Porter-scene in Macbeth, there are also some other scenes in this play which have been cleverly used to provide dramatic relief to the audience. Thus the scene in which the ghastly murder of King Duncan is plotted by Macbeth and his wife is followed by a brief scene in which Duncan innocently praises the beauty of nature around Macbeth’s costly and feels glad to see his “noble hostess.” the scene of the brutal murder of Macduff’s wife and child is preceded by a light talk between the mother and her son. The Porter-scene is, however, the most beautiful example of comic relief in Macbeth.

3. A brief description of the Porter-scene

This brief scene is part of the larger scene in which the murder of Duncan comes to light soon after the murder has been accomplished in the previous scene. The knocking at the gate of Macbeth’s castle begins towards the end of the murder-scene. It serves to put Macbeth and Lady Macbeth on their guard. But the porter at the caste’s gate, who is a little tipsy, responds to the knocking in a highly comic fashion. the discovery-scene opens with the antics of this drunken porter. He pretends for a little while that he is porter to the hell-gate, quite in nocent of the fact that the castle at present is a veritable hell. At every knocking, therefore, he welcomes humorously a new sinner who has come to the hell, and thus he entertains himself as well the audience for some time. Some of his humorous statements serve as very important topical allusions and they help us a lot in determine the date of the play.

4. An integral part of the play

The porter-scene is a very effective scene in the whole play. But for a pretty long time it was considered to be an Interpolation. Coleridge was of the opinion that this soliloquy by the porter was quite unworthy of Shakespeare. He believed that it was written for the mob by some other writer, and Shakespeare wrote only the last words-“I’ll devil porter it no further, I had thought to have let in some of all professions, that go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire.” But now it is admitted by most modern critics that the scene is genuinely and wholly Shakespearean. The scene affords a much needed interval of relief between the two scenes of utmost tragic intensity, the murder scene and the discovery scene. The porter’s speech also provides a terrible piece of dramatic irony which is a characteristic feature of the whole play. Thus the porter-scene is dramatically most relevant, and it is an integral part of the play.

5. Its dramatic significance

As explained above, the porter-scene is a very significant scene and it is very effective dramatically. It comes soon after the murder of Duncan. In the preceding two scenes the audience with nesses such hair-raising spectacles as an airborne dagger, with bloody edges, the mutterings of the grooms in their sleep. Macbeth’s bloody hands, etc. All these situations rouse our emotions to such a high pitch that we naturally need some relaxation from the resultant oppressive tension. Without this much-needed relief, the discovery of the murder in the very next scene, with all its attendant horror. Would have been simply unbearable. Shakespeare, therefore, aptly introduces the brief and highly comic porter-scene at the head of the discovery scene. This is the most important dramatic use of this short scene.

The second use of the scene lies in its heightening of tragic effect by contrast. One significant contributing factor to this heightened effect is its ironical nature. Shakespeare handles this scene as a very effective piece of dramatic irony. The porter remains ironically unconscious of the horrible effect his words produce on the mind of the audience. The audience would be justified to take the porter as “devil-portering” the gate of the castle which is no longer a castle but a veritable hell.

Apart from its dramatic significance from the above two points of view, the scene is also very important as it provides a number of topical references which go a long way towards determining the date of composition of Macbeth.