Copyright © SAVVAS Learning Company LLC. All Rights Reserved.L
ooking at it from a distance, we can see that the distinctive character
of the language of Macbeth is largely dictated by its structure. From
the first suggestion of a plot on Duncan’s life until his murder, the play
exists in a world of nightmare doubt and decision: to kill or not to kill. As
Thomas de Quincey expressed it in his superb essay “On the Knocking
at the Gate in Macbeth,” the knocking makes it known “that the reaction
has commenced, the human has made its reflex upon the fiendish; the
pulses of life are beginning to beat again; and the re-establishment of the
goings-on of the world in which we live makes us profoundly sensible
of the awful parenthesis that had suspended them.”^1 Or one could cite
Brutus’s soliloquy in Julius Caesar:
Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma or a hideous dream.
(II.i.63–65)
The action before the murder is situated in this “interim” (Macbeth
himself uses the word in I.iii.154), and the verse is designed to match- The essay first appeared in the London Magazine for October 1823 and has often been
reprinted.
12LITERARY CRITICISMNOTESFrank Kermode
from Shakespeare’s Language
from Macbeth
390 UNIT 3 • FACING THE FUTURE, CONFRONTING THE PASTLIT22_SE12_U03_B2_SG.indd 390 23/03/21 12:30 PMFACILITATING
Interpret Allusions
Circulate among groups as students begin
their close read. Suggest that as groups read
the first paragraph of Kermode’s essay, they
identify the three references to other writers
or plays. Encourage them to talk about the
annotation that they mark. If needed, provide
the following support.
ANNOTATE: Have students mark the
allusion and the two explicit references in
paragraph 1, or work with small groups to
have students participate while you highlight
the word together.
QUESTION: Guide students to consider
what these references to other written works
tell them. Ask what a reader can infer from
how Kermode refers to other writers in the
beginning of this excerpt, and accept student
responses.
Possible response: This author begins by asking
us to consider Macbeth from a distance, but this
translates into considering it in light of words
from other plays (Hamlet is alluded to and Julius
Caesar is quoted) and a famous critic other
than himself.
CONCLUDE: Help students to formulate
conclusions about the importance of these
details in the text. Ask students why a
literary critic might include citations from
other writers.
Possible response: Kermode suggests
that his ideas are part of the larger context
of Shakespearean criticism. This gives his
interpretation more credibility.
Remind students that an allusion is a
reference to a well-known person, event,
place, or literary work. “To kill or not to kill” is
an allusion to Hamlet’s famous words “to be
or not to be.”CLOSER LOOK
PERSONALIZE FOR LEARNING
Strategic Support
The Awful Parentheses Review paragraph 1.
Guide students in a close reading of one image
in the quotation from British essayist Thomas de
Quincey (1785−1859): “the awful parenthesis
that had suspended” the goings-on of the world
in which we live. First, make sure that students
understand the literal meaning of marks thatenclose a word or phrase that is separate from
the main clause. Have them find two examples
of parentheses on this page. Then, help them
understand that the word is used figuratively
here, that it represents the hiatus between words
and action. Ask: Why does Kermode describe
parenthesis as “awful”?390 UNIT 3 • FACING THE FUTURE, CONFRONTING THE PAST
LIT21_TE12_U03_B2_SG.indd 390 14/04/21 2:08 PM