ABSTRACT
Macbeth exhibits a peculiar kind of estrangement induced by a cognitive state of fascination and transport. Macbeth's regicide unleashes Terror through an equivocal act that is both the making and breaking of a forbidden image. Macbeth's warrior violence on the battlefield and his homicidal violence in domestic quarters are on a continuum, both unnaturally and uncannily figured through acts of image-making. The new Gorgon in Macbeth signals the presence of multiple strands drawn from the Medusa myth, which Shakespeare transmutes into startling new guises. Other elements of the Perseus-Medusa myth make their way into the subterranean ground of Macbeth. The Captain's and Ross' descriptions of Macbeth as 'Valour's minion' and 'Bellona's bridegroom' associate martial prowess with eroticism. Macbeth is William Shakespeare's unveiling of a new Gorgon myth, which unthreads and then rethreads the weavings of the legend to hold its audience 'rapt in the wonder of it'.
