Macbeth: Act 1, Scene 2 Updated Analysis

The main focus of this scene revolves around the wounded sergeant who has come from battle to tell Duncan, and also the audience, about what has happened. Macbeth, and to a lesser extent Banquo, are described through their actions in battle. In the opening scene, the witch has mentioned Macbeth, now we will hear two different opinions about him from both the sergeant and the king. This has two effects, the first is to build up anticipation in the audience for when they actually meet Macbeth, after all the play is named after him so he has to be a big deal, the second effect is to show the audience how well respected Macbeth is by the other characters in the play, the other noblemen of Scotland. This gives the subsequent events in the play much more drama and emotional impact, he is universally loved at the beginning and through his own actions ruins everything he has. The bloody sergeant describes Macbeth as brave and explains that he deserves that name. He goes on to tell Duncan about how Macbeth was so skilled in battle that his sword didn't even have time to cool down from all the use it had and that it smoked with bloody execution. All of the imagery the sergeant uses in this scene is brutal, blood filled and shocking. He finishes the first part of his retelling by describing how Macbeth carved a path through the soldiers of the rebel forces and found the rebel leader Macdonald who he unseen from his knave to his chap. The response to this is not one of horror as we might expect. The idea of Macbeth literally unzipping a man from his belly to his chin, chopping his head off and putting it on a stake is, to the king and his men, admirable and praiseworthy. And this gives us a good indication of the sort of world in which the play is set, it's a very masculine world, only men appear in this scene, it's a world of violence and honour. In the world of the play, to be considered a good and worthy man, you have to prove yourself in battle. Killing large numbers of enemy forces is especially honourable. Later in this scene, we learn that a Scottish nobleman, the thane of Cawdor, betrayed Scotland and sided with the king of Norway in an attempt to invade. He's stripped of his title, which is then bestowed on Macbeth as a reward for his bravery and loyalty, although Macbeth doesn't know this yet because he's not in this scene, but Duncan says what he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. So here Shakespeare is creating an interesting paradox, we're supposed to see the contrast between a disloyal, treasonous thane, that's Cawdor, and a loyal, brave one in Macbeth, but by the end of the play, they are very similar, with Macbeth going on to betray his king and country. And this is an example of foreshadowing, or echoing, a technique Shakespeare uses throughout the play. When Duncan refers to Macbeth as noble, and the sergeant refers to him as brave, we might think of Shakespeare's presentation of Macbeth as that of a tragic hero. So Shakespeare's play is a tragedy, and Macbeth is the tragic hero. The Greek philosopher Aristotle, in his work Poetics, defined the tragic hero as someone who is highly renowned, who has a reversal of fortune from good to bad, and whose misfortune is brought about by some personal error or frailty. We call this a character's hamartia, or tragic flaw. Now clearly Macbeth is presented as highly renowned in this scene, and as these scene analyses continue, we will explore whether or not he fits into the rest of the tragic hero model, but, spoiler alert, he definitely does. Shakespeare's use of imagery also presents Macbeth as highly respected. The sergeant refers to Golgotha, a biblical image linked to the site of Christ's crucifixion, and Ross speaks of Bologna's bridegroom, and most critics agree this is a reference to Macbeth. Bologna was an ancient Roman goddess of war, so the biblical and classical references linked to Macbeth here elevate his status to one worthy of renown and praise. It's also interesting to ask, if Macbeth is the bridegroom of the goddess of war, does that make Lady Macbeth, Bologna, the goddess of war herself? One of the last lines in Act 1 Scene 2 reinforces just how brutal this world is, and how low a value is put on life. Duncan orders Cawdor's death in five words, with no show or ceremony, saying go pronounce his present death. It's done in a matter of seconds, with no sentimentality or inquiry. After the witch's trochaic tetrameter in Act 1 Scene 1, we're introduced to blank verse and prose in this scene. Blank verse, as already explained, is iambic pentameter that does not rhyme, it has lines of ten syllables, with alternating unstressed and stressed syllables. Prose is ordinary written language, there is no rhyme scheme or specific metrical structure. Typically, prose is given to characters of low social status, or those engaged in comic scenes. Duncan and Malcolm, as is fitting for the king and the prince, speak in blank verse, and it's actually worth considering how Duncan is portrayed in this scene. Firstly, then, Shakespeare's use of blank verse for Duncan's dialogue immediately presents him as noble, as this form of dialogue is reserved for noble and upper-class characters. Duncan's praise of Macbeth, a valiant cousin, worthy gentleman, presents the king as appreciative and respectful. His reference to Macbeth as cousin for someone of lower rank than himself is particularly generous, as is his decision to promote Macbeth. The structural decision of Shakespeare's to both start and end the scene with Duncan's dialogue presents him as authoritative. He opens and closes the conversation and the scene. The sense of authority is also reflected in the way it is only Duncan who asks questions, he's clearly in charge. Finally, this scene introduces the first of many references to blood imagery, a motif which appears time and time again in the play. As the well-known critic A.C. Bradley noted, it cannot be an accident that the image of blood is forced upon us continually, not merely by the events themselves, but by full descriptions and even by reiteration of the word in unlikely parts of the dialogue. The witches, after their first wild appearance, have hardly quitted the stage. When there staggers on to it, a bloody man gashed with wounds. His tale of a hero whose brandished steel smoked with bloody execution carved out a passage to his enemy and unseamed him from the knave to the chaps. And then, he tells of a second battle, so bloody the combatants seemed as if they meant to bathe in reeking wounds. What metaphors! So why does Shakespeare then fill his play with blood? One interpretation is that the blood symbolises death and foreshadows the eventual demise of Macbeth. Another way to look at it is to consider blood as a symbol of lineage or bloodline, and in this way the continual references to blood foreshadow the end of the play where Malcolm, from the bloodline of Duncan, will take the place as king. Both interpretations suggest that what is going to happen, the death of Macbeth and the ascension of Malcolm, are fated to happen. Fate can be linked to Aristotle's ideas about the tragic hero, and the continual blood imagery reinforces the idea that Macbeth's future is already set. No matter what he does to try and force his way to become king, he will ultimately not be able to stop the bloodline of Duncan from taking the throne. In every Shakespearean tragedy, the title characters are fated to death, and Macbeth is no different, so the early and continued references to blood foreshadow the inevitable death of the title character, as well as the futility of his plans to become king.