11/21 Laura Fan

November 21, 2019
Laura Fan
Period 5
Blogger #5

Aim: How does Shakespeare employ the use of "comic relief" to simultaneously lighten and darken the play?

We started the lesson by continuing where we left off yesterday, reviewing the porter's soliloquy in Act 2 scene iii of Shakespeare's Macbeth. This dialogue occurs outside the castle, at the same time as King Duncan's murder, when Macduff is waiting for the drunken porter to answer his knocking:

"Faith, here's an English tailor come hither, for stealing out of a French hose: come in, tailor; here you may roast your goose.

Knocking within

Knock, knock; never at quiet! What are you?"

In this segment, the porter pretends he is at the gates of hell, and characterizes each series of knocks as a new criminal. Here, he thinks of an English tailor who stole fabric, and invites him in to "roast your goose." A goose is a term for the iron tailors used, but was also a word for a prostitute or bed-warmer, beginning the porter's series of innuendos.

"But this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter it no further: I had thought to have let in some of all professions that go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire."

The porter says only "some" will make their way to hell (everlasting bonfire) from the nice, flowery path (primrose way). This is because some for some professions, like the prostitute, it would be too cold to do their job.

"and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things."
When the porter finally answers the door, he explains to Macduff that he was drunk, which made him feel flushed (nose painting), need to use the bathroom, and drowsy. He uses comedy when discussing alcohol's effect on lechery- everything that goes up also goes down, and affects performance.

"I believe drink gave thee the lie last night."
Here, Shakespeare uses a pun, because "lie" includes both the porter not telling the truth to Macduff, and the porter passing out on his bed.

This soliloquy is full of dramatic irony, because the porter keeps referring to Inverness Castle as hell, but at the same time, the audience knows that King Duncan- who had divine right- is being murdered. We also know that Macduff has been knocking for a long time; if the porter had arrived faster, Macduff would have been able to catch Macbeth and Lady Macbeth killing Duncan.

After we finished analyzing the soliloquy, we moved on to our vocabulary game for unit 4, which was based off on "Whose Line is it Anyways?" In each round, a host had 3 minutes to guess which vocabulary word each guest was embodying through improv.

Reflection:
Today's lesson helped me understand Shakespeare's detailed use of language and organization in his plays to keep audiences entertained (ex. comedic relief following an intense scene). Reading through by myself, I wouldn't be able to understand the play as well without recognizing the irony and innuendos, which add to the audience's overall experience. I can use this knowledge to continue analyzing each character in their dialogue and actions to enforce their development throughout the play.