ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Scene 3 opens with the well-known porter scene, providing welcome comic relief to the audience who has just heard Macbeth describe the murder of the king in the prior scene. The porter has been slow to answer the knocking at the gate because he has been drinking all night.

Detailed explanation-2: -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-3: -He used these comic reliefs as a break for the audience; Shakespeare knew that this was almost overwhelmingly emotion to the audience. There’s only so much intensity that his audiences could take, after every death or emotional tragedy there has to be some sort of humor to allow the audience to relax for a little bit.

Detailed explanation-4: -Primarily, the Porter functions as comic relief by lessening the tension in the audience following the murder of King Duncan. The Porter also functions thematically by indicating that the gates to Macbeth’s home are synonymous to the gates of hell.

Detailed explanation-5: -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.