LEC052009.Annette Sebastian. Critical analysis of the significance of 'equivocator' in Macbeth.

 

The elements of equivocator overshadows throughout the tragic play Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Equivocator is a person who bends the language to deceive someone from interpreting the truth hidden in it. Equivocation was a defending strategy used by Jesuits in Shakeperean time to save their lives from the protestants. Its use was a heated debate during the Gun-powder plot.Written during the 1606, Macbeth reflects the socio-political aspects of the period.The equivocator portrayed in the porter's dream alludes to the Jesuit priest Henry Garnet. The technique of equivocation was brilliantly implemeted in the play through various charcters and their dialogues.The elemets of equivocation fills the play and it has also helped the audience in anticipating the plot.

 Historically, the equivocator in the porter’s dream alludes to the trial of Henry Garnet for his complicity in the Gun-powder plot.Henry Garnet was a Jesuit priest who was hanged proving guilty in Gun-powder plot to assassinate King James and Blow up his parliament during 1605. In the Treatise of Equivocation Garnet defends the usage of equivocating statements and justify its use for the holy purpose.However,Puritans condemned it as a outright lying.This attitude is evident in the porter's response to the equivocator in his dream, “…here’s an equivocator that could/ swear in both the scales against either scale, who/ committed treason enough for God’s sake, yet could/ not equivocate to heaven..."(Shakespeare 2.3.10-13). Portraying Garnet in the dream, Shakespeare is trying to bring soem elements of the Gun-plot to the Macbeth. 

 The equivocator in porters dream is also a dramatic technique to ease out audience from the serious actions preceding it. The porter’s scene is preceded by hefty actions like war, conspiracy to kill Duncan and the murder of the king. The porters scene soothe out the audience and prepare them to conceive the horrific scenes to come through. However, De Quincey differs from this idea of seeing it as a comic relief. In his view the porter's scene intensifies the tragic elements in the play. For the audience for whom the gun-plot memory haven’t faded, the equivocation and the regicide in it assists the audience to contextualize as well as interpret the play.

 The equivocated dialogues of characters in the play also assists in anticipating the plot and fate of its characters.The ending lines of scene one in Macbeth, “Fair is foul and foul is fair” itself fills ambiguity in the air(Shakespeare 1.1.11 ). The witches are presented as the epitome of equivocators. They deceive Macbeth through their equivocating prophesies.When they prophesies Macbeth as Thane of Glamis, Cawder and the King of Scotland the prophecy about Banquo , “Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none” were in such a way to deceive Macbeth from interpreting that his kingship doesn’t last for long years (Shakespeare1.3.67 ). Similar were the other prophecies made through the apparitions. Macbeth was taken aback and started being suspicious of the double-edged words of the witches when he heard that Birnam Wood has been seen moving toward Dunsinane. It was also a shocking revelation from Macduff also that, he“was from his mother’s womb untimely ripp’d" signifying the potential murderer of Macbeth (Shakespeare 5.7.16). In addition to this the Inverness castle is also a symbol for equivocation. Banquo who comments Inverness castle as a mansion smelling “heaven’s breath” is contradicting to the porter dream of seeing him as the gate keeper for hell.

 Shakespeare has used equivocator as a kind of extended metaphor in both presenting various themes as well as a dramatic technique to unravel the plot. He has incorporated the Gun-powder plot incident and the Jesuit equivocator to make the audience interpret and involve in his play. The dramatic genius shakespeare was also successful in implementing the elements of equivocation through various symbols character and dialogues. Thus the equivocator in porter's dream play a huge role in anticipating the plot as wells as a dramatic technique in the play Macbeth.

 

 

WORKS CITED

De Quincey, Thomas. “On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth.” Shakespeare Online, 10 Aug. 2013, www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/macbeth/knockingatgate.html.

Huntley, Frank L. “Macbeth and the Background of Jesuitical Equivocation.” PMLA, vol. 79, no. 4, 1964, pp. 390–400. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/460744. Accessed 13 Jan.2021.

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Ed. George Hunter.UK ed., Penguin Classics,2015.

Macbeth and Equivocation.” The Bill / Shakespeare Project, 19 June 2016, thebillshakespeareproject.com/2016/06/macbeth-and-equivocation/#:~:text=The%20simple%20meaning%20of%20equivocator,to%20heaven%2C%20the%20Porter%20says.&text=The%20porter%20himself%20plays%20with,of%20sex.

Wolf, Werner. “A Castle as ‘Hell’ and ‘Heaven’: Spaces and Their ‘Equivocal’ Meanings in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.” AAA: Arbeiten Aus Anglistik Und Amerikanistik, vol. 44, no. 2, 2019, pp. 85–118. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26926433. Accessed 13 Jan. 2021.