Examples Of Light And Dark In Macbeth

William Shakespeare's Macbeth is an ominous tale that illustrates the danger in violating the Great Chain of Being, the hierarchy of things in God's ordered universe. The Chain ranked all of creation and human society as well. It ranked kings above nobles and nobles above the poor. When Macbeth murdered King Duncan and assumed the throne, the Chain was violated and chaos resulted. The atmosphere of the play symbolized this resulting turmoil. Specifically, light and darkness were used to exemplify the unnatural chaos and ominous tone of the work. The role of light and the role of darkness relates to the chaos resulting from the violation of the Great Chain of Being.

The vision of the dagger, the murder of Duncan, the murder of Banquo, the sleep-walking of Lady Macbeth, all come in night scenes. The Witches dance in the thick air of a storm or, 'black and midnight hags', receive Macbeth in a cavern. The blackness of night is to the hero a thing of fear, even of horror; and that which he feels becomes the spirit of the play. The faint glimmerings of the western sky at twilight are here menacing: it is the hour when the traveller hastens to reach safety in his inn, and when Banquo rides homeward t meet his assassins; the hour when 'light thickens', when 'night's black agents to their prey do rouse', when the wolf begins to howl, and the owl to scream, and withered murder steals forth to his work. (307)

The popular quote stating that a picture is worth a thousand words applies perfectly to imagery in William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth. Shakespeare is famous for utilizing vivid imagery ingeniously to appeal to the reader’s senses. In his historic play, Macbeth, Shakespeare develops many types of imagery, a few of which are blood, clothing, nature, and light versus darkness. Imagery in this play is crucial in the development and revealing of major themes, conflicts, and character. It is present throughout each scene in the play, creating a malignant atmosphere of shame and deception.

Shakespeare used the two distinct opposites light vs. dark to mirror good vs. evil. As soon as King Duncan is murdered, the light in the world disapears.Although, everyone has light and dark inside them, the part we chose to act on makes us who we really are. Macbeth allowed the darkness to bring out his true colors and not only destroy his life, but the lives of everyone around him. Sadly, once Lady Macbeths life is taken over by the dark she trys anything to force light into it. The roles light and dark play in this tragedy are essential not only to the plot, but the vivid image in one's mind.

Exploring Why Most of the Actions in Macbeth Take Place in the Dark Macbeth is a play which describes to the audience how a good person can change and lose all his values and beliefs in the course of five acts. Being a tragedy,

Macbeth has a dark and evil theme to it as it is steeped in themes

The absence of light often makes an illusion of innocence to the wicked. Lady Macbeth yearns to be queen by way of her husband killing the king as she calls to the murdering ministers, “come, thick night, / … / That my keen knife see not the wound it makes” (I.5.53-55). Not even the thick night can cover up a murderous act, to Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s disappointment. Darkness exemplifies falseness, opposite of light, which typifies truthfulness. The murder of the king, affects the Great Chain of Being, so that even the “dark night strangles the travelling lamp” (II.4.6). The nature of darkness itself epitomizes wickedness and evil, and it tries to annihilate the light after the regicide, but even in the last scene, Macbeth could not extinguish the indissoluble small light of Malcolm, who grows to shine over the dark. Lady Macbeth secretes her malevolent ways with light, testifying her personality of covering reality. The gentlewoman explains to the Doctor the reason Lady Macbeth holds a candle throughout her sleepwalking: “why, it stood by her. She has light by her continually, ‘tis / her command” (V.1.20-21). This ironic statement means that even Lady Macbeth, master of evil, attempts to make others see her as a gentle lady and having verisimilitude, completely contradicting her true self. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth try to brighten their dark lives with a fake light

Light and darkness represent the tragedies that took place throughout the play. Light represents the good things that happen and darkness represents bad or evil things. One example of light is when Macbeth was given the thane of Gladis he was very elated and there was sunshine at that time. But for darkness its the opposite all the bad events took place during the night for example when Macbeth goes to kill king Duncan because of greed he wasn't happy with the position he received he wanted to be king so he can have more power . Another example of Darkness is when the witches come to tell him his prophecy (I, iii, 125). This is a type of tragic situation because if the witches hadn't appeared and told Macbeth that he would be king he wouldn't have so much lust. In this scene Macbeth describes the witch as an ugly old lady dressed in black. The color black represents the witch’s evil nature. Shakespeare used this traditional symbol through the play to focus on the Elizabethan concept of the Great Chain. When the chain is in order everything is good and there is light. When the chain is violated bad things happen and there is evil and darkness. When Macbeth committed the act of killing Banqu...

In image 11, immediately after Duncan’s murder, the dead king’s crown is shown in a sideways position on the floor in the left foreground, while a fire surrounded by darkness takes up a good portion of the rest of the image. Immediately behind and to the left of the crown is the base of Duncan’s bed, which is decorated with crosses and other ornate images. Furthermore, this area as well as the crown in the foreground are covered in light, which creates contrast between it and the darkness and fire in the background. In Polanski’s Macbeth, the contrast between light and dark is commonly used as a way to differentiate between good and bad, and this image is no different. The crown, shown in light and decorated with crosses, represents true goodness

The darkness Macbeth and Lady Macbeth created has not only impacted themselves but also the world and people around them. Banquo knows something terrible has happened due to the sky being dark and holding none of heavens stars. He soon after turns to his son and says, “Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven;/ Their candles are all out. Take thee that too./ A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,/ And yet I would not sleep: merciful powers,/ Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature/ Gives way to in repose!” (II.i.5-11). Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have cast this darkness throughout the world, and people are starting to pick up on it, such as Banquo. Also, since Banquo was with Macbeth when the three witches told their prophecies that turned Macbeth evil, he knows that this darkness has to be because of a wrongdoing done by Macbeth.

(Macbeth 1. 1. line 1).  This is a good example of darkness imagery because when

Fuseli’s portrayal of Macbeth in act IV scene I interacting with the three weird sisters offers unique insight into the mood of the scene by using techniques with lighting and color. The first thing that needs to be established is Fuseli’s use of lighting to reinforce the idea of the three weird sisters evil natures. The lighting shows the three in a darker, less flattering light, bringing out more of there more unnatural features. Seeing the three like this somewhat dehumanizes them, allowing a darker more ominous tone to be portrayed. This is important to understand because of the large role the sisters play in the play, and how it must be understood that they do not have good intentions, thus giving the painting a deeper level of darkness.

of Macbeth's evil deeds, we still find him likeable.  We see him in the same way

a bigger impact to start off with, that is why the first scene is of