This is Macbeth's famous pronouncement in the murder scene
of Macbeth. This is just after Macbeth has returned from Duncan's room, killing him in
his sleep.
The first line is a brilliant index to Macbeth's
character and tragic predicament. His tragedy lies not just in his ambition to become
the king and the unlawful and unethical means by which he tries to realize it, it also
lies in his ethical thinking, his self-reflexivity, his ability to explore the depths of
his own psyche and that is what he says over here. It is the tragedy of active
imagination and knowledge. He would have been fine not to know himself and contemplate
the deed, having done it. But he knows both the deed and a good deal about himself
rather tragically.
The second line has him showing his evil
fangs again in a twisting movement as it were. He refers to the knocking on the southern
entry of Inverness and rather sardonically invokes Duncan. He should wake, if he can,
with this knocking. Read in a different way, the line may as well refer to the pathos of
his impossible wish to undo what he has just done.
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