Porter macbeth macbeth's lady art thou act actions

Text	LADY MACBETH: Was the hope drunk Wherein you dress'd yourself? Hath it slept since? And wakes it now, to look so green and pale At what it did so freely? From this time Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valour As thou art in desire? The figure of the impaired Porter literalizes these images The Porter has 'been intoxicated, has overslept, and is now hungover ('green and pale' Beat for beat, the descriptions of Macbeth and the actions of the Porter are inextricably linked The two men both teeter on the brink of hell: Macbeth from his act of regicide; the Porter in his fantasies as he works the gates of Hell Macbeth, considered a powerful man at the start of the play, is now more the drunken fool In acting out in support of the prophecies of the witches, it is clear that Macbeth is not at all great a man Macbeth's actions are demonstrative of the fact that he is still susceptible to human folly much like the Porter has fallen to the follies of drunkeness Lady Macbeth's consideration of Macbeth's drunken hopes soon moves on to the disparity between his 'act and valour' and his 'desire'. This is mirrored again in the Porter's speech by Shakespeare, where he proceeds to lament that drink 'provokes the desire, but... takes away the performance'

Text

LADY MACBETH:

Was the hope drunk

Wherein you dress'd yourself? Hath it slept since?

And wakes it now, to look so green and pale

At what it did so freely? From this time

Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard

To be the same in thine own act and valour

As thou art in desire?

The figure of the impaired Porter literalizes these images

The Porter has 'been intoxicated, has overslept, and is now hungover ('green and pale'

Beat for beat, the descriptions of Macbeth and the actions of the Porter are inextricably linked

The two men both teeter on the brink of hell: Macbeth from his act of regicide; the Porter in his fantasies as he works the gates of Hell

Macbeth, considered a powerful man at the start of the play, is now more the drunken fool

In acting out in support of the prophecies of the witches, it is clear that Macbeth is not at all great a man

Macbeth's actions are demonstrative of the fact that he is still susceptible to human folly much like the Porter has fallen to the follies of drunkeness

Lady Macbeth's consideration of Macbeth's drunken hopes soon moves on to the disparity between his 'act and valour' and his 'desire'. This is mirrored again in the Porter's speech by Shakespeare, where he proceeds to lament that drink 'provokes the desire, but... takes away the performance'

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