Imagery in Macbeth

His soliloquy in which he says, "Is this a dagger which I see before me... ... middle of paper ... ...he room in which the events took place. The act ends with a return to the dark, mysterious, evil tones of the witches and their leader. The witch scene signals the beginning of the downfall, and the tone becomes more hopeless towards Macbeth and the reader senses that he won't be suffering much longer. This dark tone ends the act with Lennox saying, "May soon return to this our suffering country...". The tension still stimulates interest in the conclusion of the foreseeable tragedy.

The following three paragraphs will further discuss these topics. The first example of Shakespeare’s use of night and darkness in the appearances of the three witches. The witch sisters are the main sources of evil within the play MacBeth. When the witches are in an act, storms or the darkness of the woods always accompanies them. This shows great evilness. "

Shakespeare first displays this idea in Act 2 where Macbeth states, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red.” (II II 61-64) Macbeth figuratively states that his hands are so bloody, even the entire ocean could not cleanse them. Rather, they would make the ocean red. Macbeth’s speech takes place after Duncan’s murder. The quote is important as it shows Macbeth’s guilt over the murder, and how it haunts him.

I. “The Tragic Essence” by Margaret Webster II. Source: Class Handout III. “In MacBeth, the subtle power of darkness becomes all-pervading; it takes the form of “supernatural soliciting,” it employs “instruments of darkness,” it drenches the play in blackness and in blood, poisons the air with fear, preys on bloated and diseased imaginings, turns feasting to terror and the innocent sleep to nightmare, and employs a terrible irony of destruction in the accomplishment of its terrible irony of destruction in the accomplishment of its barren ends. Evil is alive of itself, a protagonist in its own right.” IV.

Blood will Have Blood “These deeds must not be thought / After these ways; so, it will make us mad';(II, ii, 32-33) Translation today: A guilty conscience can make a man go crazy. In the play Macbeth, this is a recurring theme throughout one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies. There are many different images that help contribute to this theme such as sleep/sleeplessness, water, & children, but the most significant image would probably that of blood. Throughout the story, the characters’ guilt is exposed through images of blood. This guilty conscience caused serious mistakes, which eventually led to the downfall of Macbeth.

The image of blood is very prominent, and instrumental in the plot of Macbeth. Uses of blood like this are very frequent, and set the stage for what is to come and move things along. Shakespeare exhibits the deteriorating mental state of the main characters by repeatedly referring to images of blood. As Macbeth toils and troubles himself about the task at hand, killing Duncan, Shakespeare uses images of blood in order to show how he is feeling about it. During Macbeth’s vision of the dagger suspended in midair he proclaims “And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, / Which was not so before” (2.i.46-47).

This is evidenced by the actions of Lady Macbeth, minor female characters such as the sailor’s wife and the gentlewoman, and Lady Macduff. For example, Lady Macbeth constantly breaks convention with her masculine assertions; however, because of these choices, she is ultimately punished. In her famous “unsex me speech” she calls upon “spirits that tend on mortal thoughts [to] unsex [her] here” by displacing her female characteristics with male traits (I.V.39-40). She does this because she feels that women do not have the natural capacity to handle high-risk situations. Lady Macbeth utilizes her acquired masculinity by, in fact, surpassing the manliness of her husband.

Shakespeare in “Macbeth” uses imagery to create a more detailed image and emphasize the themes of violence, murder and darkness. The omnipresent imagery of darkness evokes the sentiments of fear, danger and death. “Come thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke in hell” associates the darkness of the night with supernatural powers, seen in the word “hell”. This creates a sense of unease in the audience, we feel inferior to the outside forces present. Darkness is seen as a blanket for dark deeds, in this case murder.

Macbeth recognizes that the conscious acts which torture him essentially reduce him to a human individual. This is the inescapable bond that keeps him "pale" and at Act 3 Scene 2, he states: "Come seeling night Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, And with thy bloody and invisible hand Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond Which keeps me pale" The above quote by Macbeth demonstrates that he imagines that the execution of more murderous deeds, (instigation of the murder of Banquo), will help him pursue his interest of personal safety and also destroy any personal humanity left within himself. Immediately after the death of Duncan, Macbeth is disgusted with himself for murdering Duncan. This is shown by Macbeth when he states: "I have done the deed" He says this instead of simply saying that he has murdered Duncan and is consequently almost trying to avoid the subject. This demonstrates that Macbeth is deeply ashamed of what he has done.

Most of the scenes in which some kind of ill-doing is taking place is set at night or in darkness of some kind. Macbeth's murder of Duncan happens at night, and it triggers a response of outrage and grief in the land. Nature's troubled actions show us this; as Lennox tells Macbeth just before Duncan is found dead, "The night has been unruly; where we lay, or chimneys were blown down ... lamentings head i' the air ... some say the ear was feverous and did shake." (II (iii) L59) Another good example of imagery used is blood. It is used to convey guilt, murder, betrayal, treachery and evil.