Once passed the boundary of the accomplished deed he becomes an absolute victim to terrors of conscience in supernatural form. ii. ii. 22-46.In the very first moment they reach so near the boundary that separates subjective and objective that a real voice appears to be denouncing the issue of his crime:
Macbeth. Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more.'...
Lady M. Who was it that thus cried?
In the reaction from the murder of Banquo the supernatural appearance—which no eye sees but his own—iii. iv.appears more real to him than the real life around him. And from this point he seeks the supernatural, iv. i. 48.forces it to disclose its terrors, and thrusts himself into an agonised vision of generations that are to witness the triumph of his foes.
[XIII.]
Interest of Passion.
Passion.
HUMAN Interest includes not only varieties of human nature, or Character, but also items of human experience, or Passion. Passion is the second great topic of Dramatic Criticism. It is concerned with the life that is lived through the scenes of the story, as distinguished from the personages who live it; not treating this with the abstract treatment that belongs to Plot, but reviewing it in the light of its human interest; it embraces conduct still alive with the motives which have actuated it—fate in the process of forging. The word 'passion' signifies primarily what is suffered of good or bad; secondarily the emotions generated by suffering, whether in the sufferer or in bystanders. Its use as a dramatic term thus suggests how in Drama an experience can be grasped by us through our emotional nature, through our sympathy, our antagonism, and all the varieties of emotional interest that lie between. To this Passion we have to apply the threefold division of unity, complexity, and movement.
Unity applied to Passion.