Question

Read the passage from act 2, scene 3 of the tragedy of Macbeth. Which sentence contains a metaphor? "Confusion now hath made his masterpiece! Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope the lord’s anointed temple, and stole thence the life o’ the building!" Which rhetorical device does Macduff use in the underlined text?

a) Antithesis
b) Asyndeton
c) Irony
d) Metonymy

Answer 1

The metaphoric sentence in Macbeth's Act 2, Scene 3 is about King Duncan's murder, using metonymy to liken his body to a 'temple' and his life to 'the life o' the building.' option d is correct answer.

Step-by-step explanation:

The sentence from Act 2, Scene 3 of The Tragedy of Macbeth that contains a metaphor is "Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope the Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence the life o' the building!" The rhetorical device Macduff uses in this underlined text is metonymy.

This is because 'the Lord's anointed temple' is a metonym for the body of King Duncan, and 'the life o' the building' is a metonym for his soul or life. A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn't literally true but helps explain an idea or make a comparison.

Here, Macduff is comparing Duncan's body to a sacred temple, emphasizing the gravity of the murder by portraying Duncan's body as a holy structure that has been violated.