As we have discussed in class, the Porter who opens the castle's door to Lennox and Macduff in Act 2 Scene 3, behaves strangely for a Tragedy. He makes unappropriate jokes about being drunk and sexual desires and also he associates his duty with afterlife(opening the hell's doors). Moreover, it probably doesn't seem strange enough to Shakespeare that he puts that right after the murder of the king Duncan. Hey, what's wrong with you Shakespear!
Maybe, there is nothing wrong with Shakespeare and maybe we should change our point of view.
First, let's analyse the timing of that particular, say meaningless, scene. It is right after the murder of the king Duncan and right before the discovery of the death. These are two very important scenes whose digestion take some time and Machbeth is a relatively short play that includes non-stop horror and tragedy. So, putting a comedy scene may work effectively to keep the tension and produce a more dense horror. Because at the end, the human perception needs some contrast in order to process the on going data.
Secondly, Macbeth is essentially a "play". In other words, it was written in order to be performed by actors and actresses. They need some time between scenes in order to change their costumes and prepare for the successive scene. In this case, Macbeth has just murdered the king Duncan and Lady Macbeth has just put the daggers which belong to soldiers that were in the chamber. So, at the very end of the scene, their costumes and hands were bloody. They need to change and wash them. Essentially, they need some time and Shakespeare came up with a marvelous idea! Seriously, he killed two birds with one stone.
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