ABSTRACT
This extract from Act 1 Scenes 5 and 6 contains one of the best known examples of irony in drama. Immediately before the entrance of Macbeth the audience witness Lady Macbeth resolve, on receipt of the information that the king has planned to visit them, that King Duncan will not leave the castle alive. Her immediate response to the news that he will enter under her battlements that very night leaves no doubt as to her intentions:
The raven himself is hoarse, That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements . . .
