"Every Noise Appals Me": Macbeth's Plagued Ear

「聲聲迫我魂」：馬克白的翳耳

10.6184/TKR201306-6

Ying-Chiao Lin

早期醫學 ； 聲音與耳朵 ； 情緒 ； 蓋倫 ； 帕拉塞爾塞斯 ； 憂鬱症 ； 馬克白 ； 莎士比亞 ； early modern medicine ； sounds/voices ； hearing faculty ； passions ； Galen ； Paracelsus ； melancholy ； Shakespeare ； Macbeth

Tamkang Review

43卷2期（2013 / 06 / 01）

131 - 150

英文

本文將探討莎翁作品《馬克白》一劇中的音聲如何對主角馬克白之主體造成鉅大之影響。本文將以早期醫學的觀點，特別是生理學的角度，來檢驗《馬克白》劇中的外在聲音對於人的內在情緒之關連，包括生理、心理、以及道德等層面的轉變。在本劇中，莎翁呈現出馬克白之主體因其慾望之耳，受制於聲域場中，並在多重音聲與語言之牽引下，終起叛君之心而行謀殺之舉。而其因謀殺而導致之情緒如哀傷（對國王鄧肯）與恐懼（對袍澤班科），此皆是由於憂鬱腺體所產生的黑色膽汁，使得馬克白因此陷於此一病態循環中。在此劇中，罪惡如同疾病一般，是一種過度與氾濫之罪的表徵，於人體而言即是，過於濃稠的膽汁阻礙身體應有的流動力而致病，刻畫於此劇中即是，馬克白無可言喻的自我膨脹、對語言音聲的曲解、以及對物像的幻覺，此皆由於其對聽覺感官之濫用，未加以約束所致。而個人主體對生理感官與情緒的有效控管，正是英國文藝復興時期所要強調的。

This paper will examine the destructive effects of sound/voice on ”Macbeth” by taking the standpoint of Macbeth-as-listener, that is, of his receptive ears. I will explore how Macbeth degenerates into a pathological subject by looking at early modern physiological theories, especially with a Galenic medicinal standpoint, about the human ear/hearing and its impact on the brain. More precisely, I will analyze Macbeth's various physical, spiritual, and moral transformations in terms of the interchange between his internal passions and the external sounds. In ”Macbeth”, then, Shakespeare shows us the fearful result of those unsettled passions made possible by the protagonist's desiring ears, once they have surrendered to the world's tempting voices and words. On the other hand, unable to unburden himself of his fear and grief generated from his acts of murder, Macbeth is suffocated by the heavy ”black bile” of the melancholy humor. In this play, evil is conceptualized as a disease, a disease of excessiveness that thickens the blood inside the body and blocks its healthy flow, and gives rise to a monstrous exaggeration, misinterpretation, distortion (as in hallucinations) of what lies outside of us. Thus, what Shakespeare is concerned with in ”Macbeth” is not so much with rebellion and murder as it is the Renaissance concept of the self's need to maintain a corporeal equilibrium that balance of the inner passions.

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