ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -The porter imagines the gates of the castle as the gates of hell, as he tries to choose the key to open the door.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Porter is the gate-keeper to the Macbeth’s castle, and jokes about being the keeper to ‘the gates of hell’. He’s a very heavy drinker, and provides important comic relief amidst the play’s intense tragic momentum.

Detailed explanation-3: -But this place is too cold for hell. I’ll devil-porter it no further: I had thought to have let in some of all professions that go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire. The Porter cleverly reminds us where we are meant to be: up in Inverness, in the far north of Scotland, where it is indeed ‘too cold for hell’.

Detailed explanation-4: -The knocking continues, but the porter does not immediately open the door. Instead, he plays a game with himself in which he imagines himself as the porter of hell and jokes about the kind of sinners he might let in.

Detailed explanation-5: -Answer and Explanation: In Act II, Scene III, the porter opens the door for Macbeth, Macduff, and Lennox. As the porter sees himself as the keeper of the gates of hell, Shakespeare is showing the audience the significance of Macbeth’s ambitions and subsequent deeds, and the hell of his own making that results.