Who Has No Children in Macbeth? | 3
3
The second argument and the more telling is the connection of him who "has no children" with the play as a whole. With Malcolm as "He," there is no connection of consequence, and the effect is local and the line an ephemeral throwaway. With Macbeth as "He," there is profound and reverberating resonance, and the line articulates a theme of the play and tacit motive of the protagonist hinted at elsewhere but made explicit—and succinctly so—here. As L. C. Knights describes one aspect of it (Explorations 40n), "The Macbeth-Banquo opposition is emphasized when we learn that Banquo's line will 'stretch out to the cracke of Doome' (4.1.117). Macbeth is cut off from the natural sequence, 'He has no children (4.3.217), he is a 'Monster' (5.7.54). Macbeth's isolation is fully brought out in the last Act" (emphasis mine).
The ambiguous question of parental status is forced tantalizingly upon any interpreter's attention, critical or...
[The entire page is 1153 words long]
Navigate
