Macbeth
Act 2 Q.6
What do the images in lines 6-19 of scene 4 suggest about the act of killing the king? What is foreshadowed about Macbeth's reign by the description in these lines?
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DispatchedMonkey
Last updated by
Aslan
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Answered by
Aslan
Can you please quote the first line that you mean so I know exactly where you are?
Answered by
DispatchedMonkey
Threaten his bloody stage. By th’ clock ’tis day, And yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp. Is ’t night’s predominance or the day’s shame That darkness does the face of earth entomb When living light should kiss it?
Old Man.
’Tis unnatural,
Even like the deed that’s done. On Tuesday last A falcon, tow’ring in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed.
Ross. And Duncan’s horses (a thing most strange and certain), Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, Contending ’gainst obedience, as they would Make war with mankind.
Answered by
Aslan
The Elizabethan laws of natural order collapse with the killing of Duncan. God is angry and the universe is upended by the false order that Macbeth has now initiated. Strange chaotic events in nature follow like Duncan's horses going crazy and cannibalizing each other.
