Relations and Reality: On the Knocking at the Gate
In the renowned short essay “On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth” Thomas de
Quincy creates a dialogue on why a simple knocking on a gate can create a feeling of
understanding with regards to the murderer. In common homicidal practices when faced with
both a victim and a murderer, one’s sympathies is generally automatically placed upon the
victim. However, this is contrasted in Shakespeare’s Macbeth when Shakespeare manages
instead to “throw the interest on the murderer” (de Quincey). The effect is such that “we enter
into his feelings, and are made to understand them” (de Quincey). This feeling is created when
Macbeth has a negative reaction, feeling as though the knocking to there to call forth his …show more content…
The effect of the knock is being reflected upon Macbeth since he is in a way
imagining that the hail is for him, and consequently turning himself into the subject. The
knocks appear within the lines of Macbeth at times when the conversation is in reference to
guilt, calling forth his emotions to reveal them to the reader. We can see Macbeth being
internally interpellated when with the first knock he says “Whence is that knocking? / How is’t
with me, when every noise appals me?” (2.2.73-74). Therefore, through de Quincy and
Althusser we can begin to see that Macbeth is both forming and confusing an “imaginary
relation . . . to the real relations in which they live” (Althusser 1352). So as to say that despite
being interpellated, Macbeth is only imagining that the knock is directed to address and
torment him, when in reality it’s just Lennox and MacDuff at the gate requesting general entry.
Thomas de Quincey manages to create a thought provoking dialogue discussing topics
which at first seem to contradict the ideological standard. These topics include both the
boundary between which relations are real and which are just the ideological constructs of
In the renowned short essay “On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth” Thomas de
Quincy creates a dialogue on why a simple knocking on a gate can create a feeling of
understanding with regards to the murderer. In common homicidal practices when faced with
both a victim and a murderer, one’s sympathies is generally automatically placed upon the
victim. However, this is contrasted in Shakespeare’s Macbeth when Shakespeare manages
instead to “throw the interest on the murderer” (de Quincey). The effect is such that “we enter
into his feelings, and are made to understand them” (de Quincey). This feeling is created when
Macbeth has a negative reaction, feeling as though the knocking to there to call forth his …show more content…
The effect of the knock is being reflected upon Macbeth since he is in a way
imagining that the hail is for him, and consequently turning himself into the subject. The
knocks appear within the lines of Macbeth at times when the conversation is in reference to
guilt, calling forth his emotions to reveal them to the reader. We can see Macbeth being
internally interpellated when with the first knock he says “Whence is that knocking? / How is’t
with me, when every noise appals me?” (2.2.73-74). Therefore, through de Quincy and
Althusser we can begin to see that Macbeth is both forming and confusing an “imaginary
relation . . . to the real relations in which they live” (Althusser 1352). So as to say that despite
being interpellated, Macbeth is only imagining that the knock is directed to address and
torment him, when in reality it’s just Lennox and MacDuff at the gate requesting general entry.
Thomas de Quincey manages to create a thought provoking dialogue discussing topics
which at first seem to contradict the ideological standard. These topics include both the
boundary between which relations are real and which are just the ideological constructs of