LEC052029. Meenakshi Raj. "Critical Significance of Equivocator in Macbeth".

 

Critical Significance of the Equivocator in Macbeth

            William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a gory tale brimming with guilt and paranoia surrounding the fate of a tragic hero whose naked ambition leads to his downfall has enraptured the audience ever since its publication. But beyond the prophecy, vain ambition, tyranny, madness and murder Shakespeare has given the play some political and religious undertones hinting on a volatile period in the Reformation England.

The equivocator introduced in Act 2, scene 3 historically resembles the great equivocator Henry Garnet, the Jesuit priest who was charged with complicity in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Although he was aware of the conspiracy against the monarch King James Ⅰ from the lead person Robert Catesby, he obeyed the Seal of the Confessional and kept it a secret. During his trial, Garnet tried to equivocate his actions (which was a Jesuit logic to secretly practice Catholic faith while conforming to the Protestant regime by the use of ambiguous speech) by saying that his perjury was not actual perjury as he lied for God’s sake. His actions were regarded sinful and he was hanged (“The Trial”).

Shakespeare inspired from this event has used the logic of the equivocator, which literally means a person who avoids giving a clear direct answer, for emphasizing the dominant theme of contrast between appearance and reality. All the characters speak in riddles thus adding more ambiguity and the “fair is foul, and foul is fair” (Shakespeare 1.1.11) atmosphere conceals the truth and deceives. Shakespeare directly introduces the equivocator in Act 2, scene 3 of Macbeth when the drunk potter says “Faith, 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. O, come in, equivocator” (Shakespeare 8-11).

Macbeth is considered to have been composed by Shakespeare exclusively for King James Ⅰ. The fact that the play was written some time in 1606-07 proves this assumption and it was also following the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Shakespeare’s involvement in this conspiracy though very indirect would have evoked suspicion in the aftermath of The Gunpowder Plot. The gunpowder traitors were a group of angry Catholics who wanted to overthrow the Protestant monarchy and one of the masterminds of the Gunpowder Plot Robert Catesby was the son of William Catesby, a close friend of John Shakespeare. Even Shakespeare's family had Catholic inclinations- his father a covert Catholic and his mother's family, the Arden's were implicated in the Plot. Furthermore, The Mermaid Tavern in London frequented by Shakespeare was also the meeting spot of the conspirators who schemed to obliterate the Protestants. Shakespeare was indeed in a tight spot and Macbeth was his shield to clear all accusations (“How Macbeth Saved Shakespeare in the Gunpowder Plot”).

The Scottish play and the introduction of the character Banquo can be intentional on the part of Shakespeare to indirectly bring connections to King James Ⅰ who was a Scot and a descendant of Banquo the thane of Lochquhaber. The story of treason where the noble and virtuous king Duncan is overthrown is also a hint on James Ⅰ. To commemorate the Gunpowder Plot James Ⅰ created a medal engraved with a snake hiding amongst flowers, this is directly represented by Shakespeare when Lady Macbeth says, “look like th’ innocent flower, / But be the serpent under’t” (Shakespeare 1.5.63-64). Equivocation was also considered controversial during the rule of James Ⅰ and Shakespeare voices this through Macbeth when he “begin/ To doubt the equivocation of the fiend, / That lies like truth” (Shakespeare 5.5.42-44).

Thomas De Quincey in his essay “On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth” argues that though the drunk potter’s equivocator acts as a comic relief, it intensifies the depth of the tragedy and adds to the plot. Quincey declares that:

All action in any direction is best expounded, measured, and made apprehensible by reaction. Now, apply this to the case in Macbeth…They are transfigured: Lady Macbeth is "unsexed;" Macbeth has forgot that he was born of woman; both are conformed to the image of devils; and the world of devils is suddenly revealed…

 ...when the deed is done, when the work of darkness is perfect, then the world of darkness passes away like a pageantry in the clouds: the knocking at the gate is heard; and it makes known audibly that the reaction has commenced: the human has made its reflux upon the fiendish; the pulses of life are beginning to beat again; and the re-establishment of the goings-on of the world in which we live, first makes us profoundly sensible of the awful parenthesis that had suspended them.(Quincey)

Shakespeare thus uses the Gunpowder Plot as a ground for interrogating the fundamental myths of the Stuart dynasty, and his play emphasizes the overlaps between king and traitor, legitimate and illegitimate violence, terrorist, and victim of terrorism, appearance, and reality.

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. Accessed 13 Jan.2021.

“How Macbeth Saved Shakespeare in the Gunpowder Plot.” Cassidy Cash, https://www.cassidycash.com/macbeth-saved-shakespeare-gunpowder-plot/. Accessed 13 Jan.2021.

Shakespeare, William.” Macbeth”, edited by Rajinder Paul, Rama Brothers India Pvt.Ltd.,2018.

“The Trial of Henry Garnet, 1606.” The British Library, 23 Sept. 2015, www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-trial-of-henry-garnet-1606#.Accessed 13 Jan.2021.