Why do critics consider the porter's speech at the beginning of Act II of Macbeth comic relief?How do the porter's comments on the people arriving...

Following on the grisly murder of King Duncan at the end
of Scene ii, Act II, Scene iii opens with the comical protestations of the drunken
porter of Inverness. Some critics have famously seen in this episode Shakespeare's
concession to his audience benumbed by the sheer horror of the regicide. That may be so,
but the mature tragedian is accomplishing a lot more than providing slapstick comic
relief. The porter's speech while leading to laughter nevertheless contributes to the
larger meaning of the play and is itself a subtle commentary on it. His besotted banter
parodies Macbeth's inner torment. This in turn creates a paradox since it is his banter
which extends the time between Duncan's murder and the discovery of the body, thereby
increasing the tension.

In the porter's reference to
himself as Beelzebub's gatekeeper, Act Two's spinechilling metaphor is born in ironic
laughter. Macbeth's castle is the vestibule of hell. For the duration of the play the
audience will see in Macbeth's power drunk ambition and his wife's fiendish
bloodthirstiness the machinations of the Devil.

The porter
episode, global in its humour, therefore performs two functions: It lightens the
suspense, if even for a moment, but it also expands Shakespeare's dramatic
modus operandi, giving the audience an insight into the
metaphorical structure of the play.