Equivocations Identify - Assignment Example

Identify the speaker and the addressee, and explain as much as you can about the
context of the situation.
B. Explain the specific terms in the quotation that make it an equivocation.
C. Explain the deceptive truth that is to be found in the equivocation.
1.) “All our service, / In every point twice done and then done double ....” —1.6.18–19

Lady Macbeth utters these words to King Duncan, it might seem like sincere communication given to the king but the hidden message is pure sarcasm. In fact, she is nothing but complaining to the king. She is telling the king that all the services are done, they were done for none but his highness. And then whatever is done, is doubled right away. Her house is bent over backward for Lord Duncan, but in return she gets nothing. This is equivocation, it might seem to the king as a plea to ask for a reward or it could also be interpreted as a taunt to the king for being stingy, and a miser with no regard for the poor who devote their lives to serve the king.       

“had I but died an hour before this chance, / I had lived a blessed time ....” 2.3.107–
108

After the king is dead, Macbeth utters these words to show how deeply he is moved by his death. Macbeth shows how much he loved the king and how his life was just perfect when the king was alive. If he had died before the king’s departure he wouldn’t have been alive to see him fall – such an emotional stir it creates in the minds of the listeners! The reason for this ‘love’ for the king simply dripping from his words is because Macbeth is now afraid, that Macduff knows it was him who killed the king. So to show his utmost devotion and servitude for the late king, he uses this concealed treacherous love bloom in the hopes of ridding himself of the stench of the king’s blood.

Such equivocation doesn’t really have two meanings, it is nothing but deceit, an artful lie to let the world know how much Macbeth loved the king. It is words like these that help evil geniuses like Macbeth build an honest reputation with fraudulent methods. Macbeth was a general in King Duncan’s army it would have been so foolish of him to have openly criticized the king or to openly challenge him. His equivocal words like the quote above helped him to rank higher from Thane of Glamis to Thane of Cawdor and then to become the king of Scotland.    

3.) “And though I could / With barefaced power sweep him from my sight / and bid my
will avouch it, yet I must not, / for certain friends that are both his and mine, / Whose
loves I may not drop, but wail his fall / Who I myself struck down”—3.1.129–134

In this last quote, Macbeth gives his reason for not killing Banquo when he is talking to the murderers. The equivocation is in the sense that he is addressing murderers yet his intent is to share it with Banquo. Killing a man doesn’t really require killing him with one’s own hand. The better option is to get someone else to do the job, this way there is always enough doubt to get away with the murder. Macbeth uses words such as “could” and phrases like “yet, I must not”. This is classic equivocation, deceit to let Thanes know that he had all the resources to kill Banquo but he didn’t as they both share common friends (enough reason to create sympathy for Macbeth as now others believe that Macbeth has a better reason for not killing Banquo). Macbeth is just veiling his involvement in the murder by saying he could have easily carried out the job himself.