LEC052037. Rizwana." Significance and critical analysis of 'Equivocator' in Macbeth"

What is the significance of the reference to the 'equivocator' in Macbeth?

1. The concept of equivocation is widely used in Shakespeares' Macbeth as it helps to disguise the actual realities and mislead the readers and characters of the play. 

2. The witches are the evil geniuses who lures Macbeth to ruin by telling small truths and flatteres him with false prophesies and decietful shows.

3. In the play, Macbeth tries to decieve the readers by using ambiguous expressions that mislead one into thinking that he is virtuous for being greedy.

4. The porter scene in the play illustrate the miserable picture of those people at the gates of hell who adopted and exhibited feigned truths and lives for their unbridled ambition.

5. The play ends with most of the prophesies of witches being true and Malcolm being the ruler of Scotland with the help of Macduff and other allies.

Critically discuss the significance of the reference to the 'equivocator' in Macbeth.

Draft 1:
1. Macbeth, a play which envisages a tragic fate of its lead characters is infused with an atmosphere of equivocation at several scenes unfolding many untold meanings and truths.

2. Just as their words are confusing, the witches’ entire role in the play is ambiguous and this ambiguity of the Weird Sisters reflects a greater theme of doubling, mirrors, and schism between inner and outer worlds that permeates the work as a whole.

3. From the beginning itself Macbeth is aware of his double personality but it takes the passion and coaxing of his wife for him to truly embrace equivocation and learn to hide "what the false heart doth know" behind a false face.

4. Among the sinners that the porter pretends to welcome into hell is the manifestation of Macbeth himself as he can be described as " equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale".

5. The whole play is permeated by the idea of "fair is foul, and foul is fair" that disguises dishonour as honour and vice versa and therefore crowning Malcolm as the rightful heir to scotland cannot be percieved as a fair end as he cannot be wholly good.

Draft 2:
1. Macbeth ,one of the richly layered and greatest tragedies of Shakespeare, is probably the one play exploring the repurcussions of equivocation subverting a society to the fullest with no one completely sure of any character in the play towards the end.

2. The equivocation of witches enhances the play by including dramatic irony and securing the inevitable doom of Macbeth without his knowledge.

3. The usage of Equivocation in the play aids to epitomize the deceptive qualities and false meaning that the main characters endeavours to understand throughout the play

4. The equivocator in porters' scene is a reference to the Catholic plot to kill the king and parliament by gunpowder and how Catholics decided to equivocate to deal with the dangerous questiones from Protestant inquisitors.

5. The end of the play is just as equivocal as the rest of the play as there are no final answers and peace and order of scotland can be merely restored for the moment.















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