Examples Of Pathetic Fallacy In Macbeth

Unlike the idea of personification, pathetic fallacy is the expression of humans/societies condition through natural disaster. In the case of Macbeth, nature turns to chaos in order to express the state of ongoing affairs. Though nature can sometimes behave in violent ways normally, in this case, it is ‘lashing out’ as a result of Macbeth, who kills Duncan and dishonestly claims the throne. Obviously, the environment and its inhabitants are not supposed to be acting the way they do in the play, and therefore the affairs are of the supernatural sort. The Scottish nobleman, Lennox, is one of the first to notice nature's strange reaction to the discourse. Lennox is perhaps more perceptive to the natural world, as he says that the night "...has

Ross and an old man are discussing the strange, supernatural ongoings when the old man says that he saw a falcon “hawk’d at and kill’d”(2.4,15) by a mousing owl; a bird that stays true to its name and primarily hunts mice and small prey, not falcons. Perhaps Shakespeare was creating a metaphor for Macbeth and Duncan when he wrote of this. Macbeth, a lower man on the ‘food chain’ killed a great and powerful ruler, who was way above him in this sense. The final act of pathetic fallacy in the play is the recently deceased King Duncan’s horses “[Turning] wild in nature, [breaking from] their stalls.../ Contending against obedience.”(2.4,16-20). The horses even go as far as eating one another at this point. Naturally, horses are useful and obedient animals, and having them turn wild and against their masters is certainly out of the ordinary. They are peaceful herbivores, and the fact that they turned against people, and their herd-mates is quite unheard of. Though, the horses were owned by the King, so perhaps they had some sort of supernatural perception that allowed them to be aware of the murder, and react so