I have proved that prevarication is a current that initiates the evil actions
that are committed.
I have traced some of the oblique, dishonest euphemisms used by Macbeth
and Lady Macbeth in their language in their attempt to deceive
themselves and others of their intentions. This linguistic device sharpens
our awareness of their prevarication and avoidance of facing the truth,
and their attempt at self-deception and equivocation. They enter into
physical and spiritual duplicity.
The Witches are structurally important and function in contributing to the
ambiguous action of the play, and initiate the symbolism of darkness and
evil that prevails. Macbeth's echoic diction links him to the forces of
equivocation. Banquo dismisses their information, whereas Macbeth's
empathy with the Witches and his ripeness for corruption result in the
same information becoming disinformation to him.
Macbeth's prevarication continues in order to secure his position obtained
through heinous crimes and his lack of integrity in a world where it is
difficult to distinguish appearance and reality.
Lady Macbeth reveals she is in corrupt collusion with Macbeth, is a
prevaricator by means of obliquity and mutual intrigue, and shows her
shrewdness and hypocrisy towards Duncan. She undermines logic,
imagination and metaphysics and overpowers Macbeth's indecision to
commit the murder, as she acts as a "thorn" to his conscience challenging
his manhood and courage. Macbeth is coerced into acceding to the
murder as a result of Lady Macbeth's bombastic exposure of the frailties
violated by evil.
The images of blood and sight merge when Macbeth sees his horrific hands
after the murder a murder that symbolically "murders" sleep.
Shakespeare uses the Porter to indicate the "equivocator" is synonymous
with Macbeth, the prevaricator.
Storms accompany the central action of the murder of Duncan, and the
tremendous upheaval of nature reflects the tempest roaring within
Macbeth. Macbeth's swollen, puffed up, deceptive language in his false
declaration of his mourning for the loss of Duncan, illustrates his ability
to prevaricate at his best. After Duncan's murder, Macbeth continues to
secure his power and security by his desperate series of futile murders,
which he commits without a moral self-catechismal examination of his
conscience: he prevaricates with impunity.
From their earlier close intimate association there is a deterioration in
the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth: their ways have
separated through guilt and lack of trust. Lady Macbeth declines to a
languid, exhausted woman in the sleep-walking scene, as she recalls her
past crimes and atrocities. Her personal confusion, anguish and
disorientation result in a cataclysmic shudder that leads to her physical
and spiritual implosion. Macbeth remains physically aggressive. His
tactics for his physical confrontation with death are irrevocable: he
suffers an isolated spiritual implosion in his virtual negation of life.
I have shown that Macbeth is an orchestrated composition in which
prevarication is the tool used for furthering ambition that motivates the
action of the drama. / Thesis (MA)--PU vir CHO, 1986
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/10076 |
| Date | January 1985 |
| Creators | Myers, Lynette Mary |
| Publisher | Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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