Images of Night and Sleep in Macbeth by William Shakespeare
The Shakespearean work Macbeth is a dramatic tragedy. It is a serious
play that represents the disastrous downfall of its central character,
Macbeth. In this tragedy there are many terrible acts of bloodthirsty,
premeditated violence. Many of these gruesome acts happen at night.
These incidents of tragedy have a major affect on the main characters
and their actions. Macbeth also contains many images of sleep. As the
play unfolds, the nature of sleep changes for the characters who act
during the night. The use of sleep and the night play three
significant roles in this play: evil things happen at night, sleep is
portrayed as naturally good and innocent, and sleep is thus altered
due to the evil acts that occur at night.
In the play Macbeth, many acts of evil and deception happen during the
night. The murders of Duncan and Banquo occur at night. As Lady
Macbeth plans the death of Duncan, she calls upon the night in her
opening soliloquy: "Come, thick night,/ And pall thee in the dunnest
smoke of hell,/ That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,/ Nor
heaven peep through the blanket of the dark/ To cry "Hold, hold""
(1.5.57-61). They plan the murder at night because she hopes it will
cover up the murder of the King and so that no one will see them. She
believes the night will hide from heaven the wounds that she and her
husband are about to inflict on Duncan. Lennox and Macduff come the
next morning to wake Duncan. As Macduff leaves the stage to wake
Duncan, Lennox and Macbeth begin to talk. Lennox describes last night
saying, 'The night has been unruly. Where we lay,/ ...
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...ight and its darkness carry a negative meaning. Many robberies,
murders, and other terrible crimes take place late at night. Children
grow up with the sense that the night is a scary time and bad things
happen to those people who go out at night. Most people avoid the
danger of the night by sleeping during this time of darkness. Sleep is
suppose to be a good thing. Yet instead of sleeping at night, Macbeth
commits terrible acts during this time because he doesn't want to be
seen. These gruesome deeds end up being disastrous because it throws
his natural rhythm of resting out of order. He disrupts the order of
sleep and can no longer get a good night of sleep. The gruesome acts
planned by Macbeth at night lead to the destruction of his natural
order of sleep, and even more tragically the inner kingdom of
Macbeth's mind.
In Macbeth the use of night and day shows how the characters try to avoid the day and hope the night comes faster and the natural feature of one’s appearance in Cyrano de Bergerac shows how appearance does not give importance, on the opposite what does is the substance that one has, because eventually ones personality gets revealed. After Macbeth sends Lady Macbeth a letter telling that he would soon become Thane of Glamis and Cawdor, and that the king arrives later, in the night. She starts to plan King Duncan’s death for power, her ambition takes over and says, “ Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark to cry ‘Hold, hold!’ ” (I, v, 51-4). Lady Macbeths wants night to come so that her evilness can be covered ...
Guilt causes the main characters’ consciences to overcome them mentally and physically causing their downfalls. In the tragedy Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the recurring theme of night and darkness is used to symbolize guilt and conscience such as when Macbeth and Lady Macbeth want the darkness to conceal their evil deeds and in the end, when Lady Macbeth is afraid of the darkness and nighttime. In Act I, after King Duncan names Malcolm the Prince of Cumberland, Macbeth is already plotting to kill Duncan. He asks the darkness to come and hide his evil deeds so no one would see the terrible thing he was about to do.
In William Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, imagery is found throughout as it is demonstrated in clothing, blood/murder, and finally lightness and darkness. It reveals different things about characters in play such as suspicion of Banquo and Macduff of Macbeth on how he became the King of Scotland, to Macbeth’s fear of losing the crown which revealed his evil side to commit murder to try and protect what he has wanted all of his life. Macbeth’s choices put his life in jeopardy. In life, there are little things people look over that may just open their eyes and see the world from a new
MacbethL Imagery & nbsp; & nbsp; One of the most important tools in literature is imagery. It is not just in there to fill up paper; rather, there is at least one dramatic purpose. for each image and there are many different types of imagery. This essay seeks to prove that in the play Macbeth the author William Shakespeare uses darkness. imagery for three dramatic purposes. Those three purposes are, to create. atmosphere, to arouse the emotions of the audience and to contribute to the major theme of the play. & nbsp; The darkness imagery in Macbeth contributes to its ominous atmosphere. In At the very beginning of the play, the three witches are talking and the first witch says "When shall we three meet again?
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.
In scene one, the setting is revealed. It is late, past midnight, and there are no stars, making extremely dark and a dramatically perfect opportunity to commit murder. In any good horror movie, all the deaths occur at night, when it is dark. The location is a castle, which would have to be the eeriest, coldest, darkest piece of architecture ever constructed. Banquo’s “cursèd thoughts” (II, i, 8) keep him without sleep, in exact contrast with the eternal sleep Duncan will soon begin. Then, as Banquo retreats to his quarters, Macbeth’s imagination and intensified emotional exhaustion and strain generate a looming image of a dagger pointing to Duncan. “I see thee still . . .” (II, i, 35), he yells at the vision, creating a sense of madness. Again, “I see thee still . . .” (II, i, 45), but this time the hallucination is glistening with blood (and in all likely hood, that of Duncan). He casts this apparition aside and awaits his signal to make the final walk into his beloved king’s chambers. The bell rang by Lady Macbeth interrupts this thick, tense mood and startles the audience to either jump out of their seat or creep slowly to the edge of their seat. This also related to a popular sermon of the same time period, Meditation 17 by John Donne. A famous excerpt from it reads, “. . . and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee . . . ” (Donne, 284).
One of the main ways in which the horror of the murder is underlined is through the Great Chain of Being. At the time this play was written, it was believed that there was a hierarchy in the universe, with God being at the top, then angels, then the King, then man, and finally animals. This meant that the King was God’s representative on earth, and so if a rebel were to attack the King, he would be seen to be attacking and rebelling against God. This is seen in Act One, Scene Two, when the Thane of Cawdor rebels against King Duncan, where the Sergeant says – “Ship wracking storms and direful thunders break” (L.26). This thunderous weather symbolizes God’s anger at his representative of Scotland being attacked. The darkness during the play (all but two of the scenes are set in darkness) shows how the night is strangling the earth, representing the anger of God at the events in Scotland. The “Dark night strangles” (Act Two, Scene Four, Line Seven) the earth, showing God’s, overall grip on the world. The King at this time had an absolute monarchy (power of life and death over everyone in his kingdom). The belief was that God had passed special powers to all Kings, such as that for healing, which Malcolm identifies in Edward the Confessor (the King of England) in Act Four, Scene Three – “He cures…the healing benediction…he hath a heavenly gift of prophecy” (L.152-157). Shakespeare later uses Edwa...
Use of Blood Imagery in Macbeth William Shakespeare uses many techniques to liven up the intensity, and the excitement, of his plays. In the play of MacBeth, Shakespeare uses blood imagery to add a sense of fear, guilt, shame, insanity, and anger to the atmosphere. The use of blood imagery allows the audience to vision in their minds the crime scene where Duncan was murdered, as well as the scene where Lady MacBeth tries to cope with the consequences of her actions. The talk and sight of blood has a great impact on the strength and depth of the use of blood imagery. MacBeth’s soliloquy in Act 2 scene 1 gives the reader a description of how Duncan will be murdered.
Macbeth has overthrown the Natural Order and he causes the unnatural confusion; Duncan's "sacrilegious murder" is mirrored throughout nature; "Tis unnatural/Even like the deed that is done". To portray the true state of Scotland's sickness, Shakespeare uses images of false appearances and unnatural happenings; "By the clock 'tis day and yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp". Such imagery is not just a random, coincidental collection of similes and metaphors; Shakespeare masterfully unifies them into a concentrated set of ideas which adds to the vividness of play. On the night that Macbeth "hath broke ope/ The Lord's anointed temple" others describe the night as "unruly" and claim that "the earth/ was feverous and did shake".
In Shakespeare's Macbeth, various types of imagery are used throughout the play. Five of these images are nature, paradoxes, manhood, masks, and light vs. darkness. In Act I, Scene i, Line 1, the description of "Thunder and lightning" represents disturbances in nature. The witches are surrounded by a shroud of thunder and lightning, which might personify them as disturbances. In Act II, Scene i, the dark night creates a perfect scene for the baneful murders.
It is the progression of life, as Macbeth has lost his only “light” why shall he continue on his life. This negative and dark imagery continues to grow because tomorrow is unrelenting to him " To the last syllable of recorded time,And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!” (Macbeth IV.iv). The darkness has changed the meaning behind life and
Use of Night and Darkness in Macbeth Shakespeare is known for his descriptively rich plays. He also ways does an excellent job of describing both the characters as well as the setting. One specific area of the play MacBeth is the use of night and darkness to show evil or happening that are not right. Examples of this are the many appearances of the witches, the murders that occur, and the conflicts that MacBeth faces with his mental health. The following three paragraphs will further discuss these topics.
Most of the action in Macbeth takes place in the darkness that comes just before dawn. The murder, the nightmares, and the confession all take place in the hours of the night when most people are sleeping, either alone or with a lover. When the blood begins to flow, it becomes a metaphor for sex. Lady Macbeth displaces her desire to destroy her husband onto Duncan, and Macbeth displaces his desire to dominate his wife sexually onto Duncan. The poor victim of these psychological mechanisms, Duncan, is killed more like the victim of a rape than the victim of a murder. When his blood flows, and his life ebbs away, Lady Macbeth feels a sexual orgasm, and Macbeth feels the loss of his erection at the end of the act.
Shakespeare often uses darkness and will frequently set the scene as a dark and stormy night. This depicts that evil happenings are occurring or are about to take place. There are at least three examples of this in "Macbeth". "The night has been unruly: where we lay,/Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say,/Lamentings heard i’ the air; strange screams of death,..." (Act 2 scene 3 line 54-56). "Three score and ten I can remember well;/Within the volume of which time I have seen/Hours of dreadful and things strange, but this sore night/Hath trifled former knowings." (Act 2 scene 4 line 1-4). Both these quotes are talking about the night of Duncan’s death. They are showing the comparisons between the natural unruliness and the anomalous disaster. "And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp." (Act 2 scene 4 line 7) is a metaphor for both the murder of Duncan and the night in which it transpired. A dark and stormy image is also portrayed when pernicious characters (ie. the witches, Macbeth and the murderers) meet.
Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's problem plays which have puzzled the critics all over the years. It is compact and full of significant scenes, and it has two important characters, Macbeth and his wife. It is a clear study of human nature, which I personally think Shakespeare had mastered. The final act opens with the sleepwalking scene and this scene is of great significance because it reveals the true nature of lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is one of the enigmatic characters. Once she is a woman made out of steel and suddenly she collapses; she returns to be a gentle wife. The sleepwalking scene also shows lady Macbeth as a complementary character to her husband.