This is a thought-provoking question. It is obvious that
the raven referred to by Lady Macbeth symbolizes death and perhaps premeditated
murder--but the words that need explication are "hoarse" and "croaks." Ravens typically
make a piercing call that could be described as "cawing" or even "shrieking." The
explanation for Lady Macbeth's choice of "hoarse" and "croaks" must be found by
analyzing the context.
MESSENGER
The king comes here
tonight.
LADY MACBETH
Thou'rt mad to say
it!
Is not thy master with him? who, were't so,
Would have informed
for preparation.
MESSENGER
So please you, it is
true: our Thane is coming.
One of my fellows had the speed of
him,
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
Than would make
up his message.
LADY MACBETH
Give him
tending;
He brings great news.
Exit
Messenger.
The raven himself is
hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my
battlements.
Lady Macbeth is
saying that the raven sounds like the messenger who was "almost dead for breath," in
which case he would have sounded hoarse and rasping or "croaking." The raven only seems
to be hoarse and croaking to Lady Macbeth because she imagines, or wants to imagine,
that it sounds different from ordinary ravens because the bird too, like the messenger,
brings great news. In fact, she may not even think the raven sounds different from any
other raven but she is just voicing the author's poetic conceit. In the case of the
raven the great news is "the fatal entrance of Duncan." The King's entrance is fatal
because it presents the golden opportunity for her and her husband to assassinate him.
She receives the news that "the king comes here tonight" by a first messenger, who
quotes that news from another messenger whom he calls "one of my fellows." The raven
thus seems to her to be a third messenger confirming the king's imminent arrival and
thereby lending special and ominous significance to this unexpected event. In imagining
that the raven sounds hoarse and is croaking, Lady Macbeth may be suggesting that the
bird has just flown a considerable distance at full speed for the sole purpose of
warning her that the King and her husband would be there that night. She would
undoubtedly like to know who else is coming and how many others she will have to prepare
for, but the messenger who actually talks to her knows very little because he got the
news at second hand from another messenger who could barely talk. Lady Macbeth would
like to know, for instance, whether Duncan's two sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, are coming
with him.
It is interesting--and characteristically
Shakespearean--that the first thing Lady Macbeth thinks of is that, as chatelaine, she
is going to have to make extensive preparations for accommodating and entertaining King
Duncan and all the retinue he is undoubtedly bringing with him. Shakespeare usually has
female characters doing typically feminine things. Lady Macbeth will be the one who
prepares the "possets" that drug the grooms who are guarding Duncan in his bedchamber.
Near the end of the play she will be concerned about getting a spot out of a article of
clothing. Earlier she talks about nursing a baby. She has to seem feminine for at least
two reasons. One is that the role is being played by a male, so it would seem advisable
to try to override this fact by emphasizing femininity. The other reason is more
important. She has to seem feminine in order to make her "masculine" characteristics,
such as ambition, ruthlessness and violence, seem more striking by contrast. At one
point, her husband tells her:
Bring forth men children only,
For thy
undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but
males.
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