Macbeth expresses these confrontations after the finding of
Duncan’s killed body. The words are an illustration of verbal irony. Verbal
irony happens when a character speaks one thing which other characters understand
in one specific way, but the spectators knows the truth but the characters do
not. When Macbeth states, “Had I but died an hour before this chance,/I had
lived a blessed time,” the noblemen assembled around to take him to mean that
he is so saddened and sorrowed by Duncan’s death that he would somewhat have
died himself than lived to see such a horrifying thing that had occur. The spectators
knows this is not a correct explanation because Macbeth is the killer, but the
characters in the play do not. Furthermore, if Macbeth had perished an hour
before Duncan was slain, Duncan would still be alive. Macbeth would be in
heaven in place of becoming a living killer convicted to hell, as Shakespeare’s
spectators would have supposed.
