Nothing Is But What Is Not

Tara Walker English 2010 M W& F Literary Analysis October 22, 2009 Nothing Is But What Is Not The thrill of watching a horror movie lies in the anticipation of what comes next. The greater the expectancy, the greater the scare when those specific events take place as anticipated.

However, an unexpected twist or outcome creates more tension, complexity and consequently a better film. During the 1500s and up until the mid 1900s people did not amuse themselves with the cinema, but with the theatre, which provided a similarly tangible experience in catharsis.

Dramatist William Shakespeare, born in Stratford-on-Avon on an unrecorded day of April 1564, was referenced by a fellow playwright in his own time as “an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his tiger’s heart wrapped in a player’s hide supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you” (Barnet ix). Though under much scrutiny in his own time period, the world of academia today considers Shakespeare as one of the greatest playwrights the world has ever known. Well rehearsed in the effects of carefully scripted drama, Shakespeare was no stranger to the influence that irony and foreshadow can have on a script and its audience. His works, comedy and tragedy alike, are well known for these literary devices.

Highly debated is the year in which he wrote one of his most well known plays, but scholars believe that stylistically, Macbeth was written sometime between 1605 and 1606 (Barnet xvii).

The drama, full of deception and death, takes place in Scotland and looks at the weighty control of prophecy, fate and the powerful belief in superstition. In this tragedy, one of the central themes is that nothing is really as it seems. Shakespeare implicitly uses both irony and foreshadowing to emphasize the theme in three specific areas: the façade of truthfulness in

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human nature, mysteriously two-faced prophecies, and deceptive occurrences in nature and other inanimate objects.

One of the most substantial examples of the theme appears in the words and actions of four specific characters. Although each character’s motive for deception differs from that of the others, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Macduff and Malcom are all seen in a different light than they truly are. In scene two of the play, an army captain and Ross verbally honor Macbeth for showing courage and valor in battle and leading them to victory. King Duncan then proclaims Macbeth’s new title shall be Thane of Cawdor. Upon hearing the witches’ prophecies that promise he will be elevated to Thane of Cawdor and later, king, Macbeth begins to plot the murder of a man who sings him praises even to the grave. Prior to Macbeth entering King Duncan’s presence, the king speaks of the previous Thane of Cawdor who was killed for treason: There’s no art To find the mind’s construction in the face: He was a gentleman on whom I have built An absolute trust. (Shakespeare 1.4.10–13) It is ironic that Macbeth, who replaces the untrustworthy Thane of Cawdor, will be equally difficult to discern and even more treasonous. Subsequently, Macbeth and King Duncan speak and Macbeth two-facedly declares honor and allegiance to the king; “the service and the loyalty I owe, / in doing it pays itself” (Shakespeare 1.4.22–23). These interactions distinctly foreshadow events to come and show that Macbeth has set a course to deceive and get gain no matter the cost.

Upon receiving her husband’s letter, Lady Macbeth sets firm her resolve to help Macbeth obtain the throne and become King of Scotland. However, she declares that his nature is “too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness” and “without/ the illness [that] should attend

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[ambition]” (Shakespeare 1.5.18, 20–21). Consequently, in a well known soliloquy, Lady Macbeth begs the spirits to change her gracious feminine nature and says: Unsex me here, And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full Of direst cruelty! Make think my blood, Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose. (Shakespeare 1.5.42–47) Lady Macbeth receives her wishes, but not to the extent that she can no longer adequately fool King Duncan when he stays at their home. The honored guest proclaims his hostess to be “honored…fair and noble,” and as she sweetly plays the part, he undoubtedly believes her to be so (Shakespeare 1.7.10,25). Later, we find her deception to the king and self, as well as her proclaimed cruelty an ironic situation, for following all the murders, her façade fails her and she is left in ruins- haunted by her guilt.

A victim of the wicked and deceitful Macbeths, Macduff flees his beloved country to render aid to the true king of Scotland. Unwisely, he leaves his wife and babes unattended and without protection. Having forgotten to inform them of his innocence, Lady Macduff laments the loss of her husband and confirms her young son’s inquiry that his father is indeed a traitor. Here, Shakespeare uses dramatic irony quite heavily. Despite the reader’s knowledge of Macduff’s honor, Lady Macduff and her children die believing that their husband and father is something he is not: “one that swears and lies” (Shakespeare 4.2.47). Furthermore, it is ironic that Macduff later becomes the proclaimed hero after slaying Macbeth on the battlefield.

In Act 4 Scene 3, Macduff comes to England in order to join forces with Malcom.

Malcom, Prince of Cumberland and heir to the throne, makes himself the most ironic character appearing contrary to his nature in the script. This is primarily because his motives for doing so lack personal gain and occur only to secure the liberty of his beloved Scotland. Due to the nature

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of the situation, Malcom fears he cannot trust Macduff. Consequently, the former declares his unfitness to become king, sharing with Macduff that his lust and tyranny will be greater than Macbeth’s. In response, Macduff mournfully declares, “O Scotland, Scotland! / When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again…” (Shakespeare 4.3.100, 105). Here, Malcom sees he can undoubtedly trust the honorable Macduff and reveals to the latter that the radical claims he made about himself were false.

At the root of the character’s deceit lie the ill-fated prophecies of the three witches. “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (Shakespeare 1.1.10). Spoken only to Banquo and Macbeth in the beginning of the play and later to Macbeth only, the prophecies triggered the tragic course of events that followed. Despite the fulfillment of each prophecy, all were misleading in some way or another. In Scene 3 of Act 1, the witches hail Macbeth as Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor and King. Additionally they prophesy that though Banquo will never reign as king, many of his posterity will inherit the throne. Upon hearing the prophecies, Macbeth first questions their truthfulness and then decides to carry them out on his own. Later, in Act Four Macbeth returns to the witches for further information and receives three apparitions who each proclaim something of worth to him. The first, “Beware/ Macduff,” leaves no room for question and remains understood (1.71–72). Then, the apparitions tell Macbeth that none woman born will harm him and that he will not, “vanquished be until/ Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill/ Shall come against him” (Shakespeare 4.1.92–94). Unfortunately, these prophetic utterances prove to be easily misinterpreted. “It never enters [Macbeth’s] mind to examine the saying more closely… for a double bottom…[and] have Birnam Wood chopped down and burned on the spot” (McCarthy 159). Ironically, it also does not occur to him that a man born by caesarian section makes it through the “woman-born” loophole (Shakespeare 4.1.80). Arguably enough,

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Macbeth’s downfall may be due to his lack of discernment. Along with their vague and deceptive prophecies, the three weird sisters themselves were a gross misinterpretation. Far from accurately representing the gentler sex, Banquo relates, “You should be women,/ And yet your beards forbid me to interpret/ That you are so”(Shakespeare 1.3.45–47). The undecipherable witches and their fate-filled prophecies foreshadow the outcome of the play.

A final source of foreshadow and irony comes in the form of the Macbeth residence and the unnatural darkness that prevails on the night of King Duncan’s murder. On approaching Macbeth’s castle King Duncan could look at it and say, “This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air/Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself/Unto our gentle senses” (Shakespeare 1.6.1–3).

“Duncan’s gentle senses that could smell no treachery though a whole house reeked of it… of course could sleep” (Doren 359). Though it never spoke, and despite appearing a “procreant cradle”, the castle was a deceitful trap of lies, murder, and ugliness (Shakespeare 1.6.8.). Equally ironic is the unusual setting of the moon before its time and the lack of stars in the sky. Here, at the beginning of Act 2, Banquo and his son Fleance watch from the court of Inverness and discuss the eerie feel of the night about them. It is true Shakespearean talent to include the setting of the play in one of the themes.

Shakespeare’s Macbeth is thorough. He carefully incorporates irony and foreshadow to create a tangled web of deceit that manifests itself as a powerful theme that “nothing is/ But what is not” (Shakespeare 1.3.141–142). The play remains a tragedy, easily interpreted by any generation of time or walk of life. Literary analyst, Mary McCarthy, poignantly said, “It is a troubling thought that Macbeth, of all Shakespeare’s characters, should seem the most ‘modern’, the only one you could transpose into contemporary battle dress or a sport shirt and slacks” (Class Discussion). In Macbeth, although human nature exists deceptively, prophesies continue

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to mislead and nature has its way with the world, one certainty remains. Right will always win and truth will always prevail.

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Works Cited Barnet, Sylvan. “Shakespeare: An Overview.” The Signet Classic Shakespeare. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: New American Library, 1998. Print.

McCarthy, Mary. “General Macbeth.” The Signet Classic Shakespeare. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: New American Library, 1998. Print.

Shakespeare, William. “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” The Signet Classic Shakespeare. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: New American Library, 1998. Print.

Van Doren, Mark. “Macbeth.” Shakespeare Modern Essays in Criticism. Ed. Leonard F. Dean.

New York: Oxford University Press, 1967. Print

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