Intensity creates stress. Through any play or performance, the audience will feel negative emotions if the intensity never ends. Shakespeare, the master of comic relief, expresses humor throughout the play “Macbeth” to provide his audience a break through the intensity in order to allow enjoyment. Near the beginning of Act II, Shakespeare introduces the drunken Porter who allows Macduff and Lennox into Macbeth’s castle. When Macduff questions the drunkenness of the man and asks what three things that drinks provoke, the Porter says, “Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. / Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes: it provokes / the desire, but it takes away the performance,” (Shakespeare 355). Shakespeare mocks the efficiency of alcohol
