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De Quincey explains why the knocking at the gate after the murder of Duncan produces a peculiar effect in Macbeth. He argues that Shakespeare throws the interest on the murderer and expresses his murderous mind with energy.
"On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth" is an essay in Shakespearean criticism by the English author Thomas De Quincey, first published in the October 1823 edition of The London Magazine. Though brief, less than 2,000 words in length, [1] it has been called "De Quincey's finest single critical piece" [2] and "one of the most penetrating ...
- Thomas De Quincey
- 1823
Nov 11, 2020 · De Quincey argues that the knocking at the gate after Duncan's murder reflects the transition from human to fiendish nature in Macbeth. He analyzes how Shakespeare uses this symbol of reaction to create a sense of horror and contrast in the play.
- Feeling Over Understanding
- The Meaning of Sympathy
- Time Stands Still
Thomas De Quincey was a Romantic-era writer and valued emotion and intuition over logic and reason. He begins this essay by sharing his profound emotional experience at the moment someone knocks at the gate after Duncan's murder in Macbeth. De Quincey's concern with feeling rather than logic or rhetoric distinguish his essay from other Shakespearea...
De Quincey says that people feel revulsion if they only have sympathy or an emotional connection to the victims. Murder goes against the human instinct to self-preserve, and it evokes repulsion but does not help people understand human nature. De Quincey states that this perspective does not work for poetry. It would be vulgar if a poet only evoked...
De Quincey can explain the significance of the feeling he experiences at the knocking at the gate in Macbethby describing other times he's felt the same feeling. He describes the gasp after a woman faints or the first noise after a moment of silence. These small events break the stillness of an emotionally significant moment. Other similar moments ...
The author: Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) was an English essayist and literary critic, best known for his autobiographical Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1822), and for the short essay, "On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth," first published the London Magazine for October 1823.
In Thomas De Quincey's 1823 essay "On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth", he describes the effect of the knocking at the gate (Macbeth, Act II, Scene 3) on him when he was a boy: "it [the knocking] reflected back upon the murderer a peculiar awfulness...". What does he mean by this?
The knocking on the gate reminds us of Macbeth's sympathy for the king and of his own weakness. Finally, as if he could undo it all, he desperately cries to the unseen...
