CC - IV: Macbeth: Porter scene

 The porter scene (Act II, Scene III) in Macbeth has something funny frivolous about it, and  yet far from distracting from the integrity of the plot, it exchanges the artistic effect of the whole work. The scene is a nocturnal one. The porter keeps watch on the castle of Macbeth. Macbeth has just murdered King Duncan. The atmosphere in the castle appears to be somewhat still and heavy. But the porter who is drunken, is completely unaware of the bloody event which has just occurred in the inner-sector of the castle. Since he is over head and ears in wine, he is not at all in his normal state. His fancy is set on fire. He thinks that his is a role of the keeper of the hell gate. At this point a knocking at the door is heard. The porter thinks that some condemned soul of a peasant perhaps seeks entry into hell. When a knocking is heard once again, he expects the entry of some equivocator. When the door is knocked for the third time, he is under the impression that an unscrupulous tailor is about to come in. However, when the knocking at the gate continues, his world of fancy is shattered and he comes down on the rocky surface of the reality. He opens the door and Macduff comes in along with Lenox. While Lenox is engaged in exchanging words with Macbeth , Macduff steps straight in the bed chamber of Duncan. The moment Macduff notices body of Duncan laying in a pool of blood, he returns at a lightning speed.

                                As has already been pointed out, the funny speech of the porter serves as comic relief. When Macbeth instigated by his wife, kills Duncan who is at once his king and kinsman, the situation turns tense and the porter's speech which occurs in the wake of the ghastly murder of Duncan aptly helps the audience release at least for a little while from the heavy load of excitement. In the second place, When the porter in a state of drunkenness, describes Macbeth's castle as a hell, he unknowingly hits the nail on the head. For, the place where an innocent old king is killed by his host is nothing, if not hell. Thirdly, we find the porter's comic admission into hell  of the three persons - a farmer, an equivocator and a tailor. It is not without serious import. All of them are entitled to the suffering of hell because of hell of their overreaching ambition, and it anticipates that so is going to be the case of Macbeth. He will also be doomed to ever-lasting bonfire of hell but because of his vaulting ambition. What is more, the Porter stands in sharp contrast with Macbeth. The  Porter uses vulgar words and his station of living is remarkably low. There is nothing decency or polish about him, But everything said and done, he is not a not a murderer. On the other hand, Macbeth speaks like a poet . Whenever he opens his lips, he drops pearls of poetry. Side by side, his social status is astoundingly his glitters not withstanding, he is a murderer, a heartless butcher. The contrast between the Porter and Macbeth suggests a kind of irony, the edge of which is razor-sharp.

                               Thus the dramatic value of the Porter scene is enormous. There are many (Coleridge is one of them) who think that porter's speech ought to be excluded from the play, because it is, they guess a piece of interpolation. But De Quince massively and lyrically explains the artistic efficacy of the Porter's speech and his explanation theory with regard to the Porter scene.