Illusion and Reality
Illusion as a corollary of reality seems to be a favourite
theme for Shakespeare. The theater itself is a world of illusion and
Shakespeare talks endlessly about it. The news from the new world and the flood
of Greek and Roman literature also would have influenced Shakespeare to explore
this aspect of life.
When the witches say 'fair is foul and foul is fair', we are
told of how the world is seen differently by people depending on what they are.
Evil operates through deception. Macbeth’s mind has an inkling of the deeper
water he is led to when he says,
So fair and foul a day I have not seen.
Duncan refers to Macbeth as a worthy gentleman and pays with
his life for his inability to see through Macbeth’s outward appearance. Macbeth is
called noble and also a valiant cousin. But in reality Macbeth is a potential
traitor. Duncan trusted the earlier Thane of Cawdor. Now he trusts Macbeth and
makes him the new Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth is happy when Duncan plans to visit
his castle but Duncan fails to see why Macbeth is so happy about the visit.
Both Duncan and Banquo find the atmosphere at the castle wholesome and
welcoming. They don’t know about the serpents that reside there.
Lady Macbeth welcomes Duncan very politely and expresses her
desire to serve him very effectively. But we know that she has already made up
her mind to kill the king. She herself refers to the occasion as the fatal
entrance of Duncan under my battlements. She tells her husband to don a
pleasant appearance to hoodwink the others. She says,
Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it,
She tells him that 'to beguile the time he has to look like the
time'. Macbeth more than echoes her words when he says later,
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
He
later gives her a taste of her own medicine when he says,
Let your remembrance apply to Banquo:
Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue
Macbeth is presented as a great warrior who vanquishes
all his enemies. But his main enemy is
within himself. He says the he has given his soul to man’s eternal enemy. He
fails to see that the enemy is within himself in the form of ‘vaulting ambition
that overleaps itself’. His courage and determination fail when he confronts
Lady Macbeth. He is not powerful than his enemies in anyway. But she is able to
work on him by fanning his own desires. We hear her counsel Macbeth and
persuade him with diabolical cogency.
Appearance and reality becomes very clear when Banquo’s
ghost appears. Hallucinations are used very effectively to reinforce this
theme. The witches give Macbeth some false promises which he considers as
protection against his downfall. But he fails to see the double meaning in
their words. He is killed not by a man born of a woman. He is killed by a man
who was brought into this world by ripping open his mother. The foerst which is
thought not to move, finally moves toward Macbeth’s castle in the form of
branches held by his enemy soldiers. This kind of cheating makes Macbeth call
the witches ‘these juggling fiends’.
When Malcolm meets Macduff in England, he suspects
Macduff is a spy. Malcolm pretends to be unfit to be king and fools Macduff. In
effect, they both misunderstand each other. Later Macduff is found to be a
trustworthy person and Malcolm is found to be a man of integrity. There several
instances of life considered as a drama and the world as theater, both examples
of reality and illusion. The supernatural also is made use of to reiterate this
aspect of the world.
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