Priyanka.LEC052035.Critical analysis of the significance of 'equivocation' in Macbeth

Priyanka

Professor Joseph Koyipalli

Academic Writing

14 January 2021

Critical analysis of the significance of ‘equivocation’ in Macbeth

An ‘equivocator' is a person who tries to mislead through language and the major elements of equivocation are: A lie is not actually told and the truth is not told either but, a false idea is deliberately fostered. The use of ambiguous language to conceal the truth or to avoid committing oneself is used quite often in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth. It can be said that the play itself is based on equivocation. The three witches, Lady Macbeth and many other characters including the conscience of Macbeth, the hero himself have the equivocate part. In Macbeth it's everywhere. The atmosphere of the play is filled with it.

Between 1598 and 1606, in England, there was much talk of equivocation. The Gunpowder Plot, a conspiracy to blow up Parliament, had failed, and the conspirators had been arrested. One of them, Father Henry Garnett, a Jesuit, used equivocation during the trial. He was found guilty anyway and sentenced to death, but before he died, he claimed that equivocation is sometimes justified. Since then, in England the term 'equivocation' is quite familiar among the people. The term became notorious at the trial with the execution of Father Garnett. Also, it has been well recognised that equivocation is a major theme in the play, both in the narrow sense of common duplicity and in the larger sense of a blur between appearance and reality. But in short, the meaning of the term is highly connected with deceit and treason.

            The drunken Porter in Macbeth 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 2.3.74). The speech has often used as one of the means of dating the play because the term and manipulating factors of “equivocation” became notorious due to the gunpowder incident. When Macbeth visits the witches for the apparition, the witches that are working for the devil, equivocate all their apparitions. They say “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (Shakespeare 1.1.51) in the very first scene itself. The witches are the most appropriate example of equivocation even though the tragic hero Macbeth is quite an equivocator himself, but the witches are more dangerous because it’s their twisted words that fueled the vaulting ambitions in Macbeth which eventually led to his downfall.

Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth play the role of equivocators when they behave so hospitably towards King Duncan when in actual, they were planning to murder him in their castle and later assassin him in real. Macbeth equivocates when he tells Banquo they will talk the next day, knowing that the murderers will kill Banquo later that day. Malcolm suspects Macduff of equivocation when Macduff comes to England to join Malcolm in the fight against Macbeth. Further, this theme is emphasized by the porter in the famous comic relief scene that separates the murder of King Duncan from the discovery of his body by Macduff. It is in the porter scene (act 2, scene 3) where the word “equivocation” is mentioned and how most of the characters use it as their main tool. Even Lady Macbeth through equivocation provokes Macbeth to kill the noble King Duncan.

From the play, a number of examples can be sited where the art of misleading through language is evident. Role of the equivocators here, is indeed a major reason for all the miss happenings of the story. Equivocators with their indirect language conceal their real intentions with which the entire story get twisted mostly in a tragic way, they can even be the foundation for construction of a story as in Macbeth. Also using them, plot twist and major incidents of a play or story can take place.

 

 

 

Work Cited

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 12 Jan. 2021.

Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare's Macbeth, Text with note. 1st ed., Calicut University, 2000

Tromly, Frederic B. “Macbeth and His Porter.” Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 26, no. 2, 1975, pp. 151–156. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2869244.Accessed 12 Jan. 2021.