ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -1-2 ‘If a man were Porter of Hell Gate, he should have old turning the key. ‘ – The Porter’s inebriated ramblings perhaps suggest to the audience that Macbeth himself has just, in a metaphorical sense, knocked on ‘Hell Gate’ and asked admittance.

Detailed explanation-2: -In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macduff asks the Porter, “What three things does drink especially provoke?” The Porter replies, “nose painting, sleep, and urine”-the first of which is usually taken to mean the red flush that comes across a drinker’s face.

Detailed explanation-3: -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-4: -A drunken porter, answering the knocking at the gate, plays the role of a devil-porter at the gates of hell. He admits Macduff and Lennox, who have come to wake Duncan. Macbeth appears and greets them. Macduff exits to wake Duncan, then returns to announce Duncan’s murder.

Detailed explanation-5: -Macbeth says he has avoided fighting Macduff because he has enough blood on his hands already. They fight. Macbeth mocks Macduff, saying his effort is wasted: no one of woman born can beat Macbeth. But Macduff replies that he was “untimely ripped” from his mother’s womb (line 16).