Light Versus Dark in Macbeth by Shakespeare

Throughout Macbeth there are many examples of light verses dark imagery. The lightness represents peace and the darkness represents disastrous events or death. In the beginning of the play, the character Macbeth was a friendly guy that could only hurt who deserved it. He starts out with a sense of innocence and only killed traitors of the king. But, later she becomes desirous and in order to take King Duncan’s place he murders him. This was the turning point for him and he became a killing machine. Lady Macbeth started as a character of darkness; she yearned for power and did not want to express any emotion. Later on she became guilty and started sleep walking and she committed suicide. In the beginning of the play all of the murderers were committed with a sense of darkness. However, this changes once three murderers kill Banquo in presence of lightness.

One example of light is when Lady Macbeth finds out that King Duncan is coming to the castle. She says "Come, thick night, and pall the 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" (I, V, 57-60) Here she is saying that she wants the darkness to cover her for when King Duncan is murdered. She makes Macbeth murder Duncan because he looks too much like her father when he sleeps. Macbeth stabs King Duncan while he is sleeping but he leaves the dagger in the room. Therefore Lady Macbeth has to go retrieve it because Macbeth is too traumatized to return. After the murder, Macbeth is very skittish about people finding out if it was him. Out of rage he kills the guards; this is the first murder Macbeth commits without consulting Lady Macbeth. The next morning Malcom and Donalbain flee the country because t...

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...lusion one example of light is when Lady Macbeth finds out that King Duncan is coming to the castle. She says that she wants the darkness to cover her for when King Duncan is murdered. She makes Macbeth murder Duncan because he looks too much like her father when he sleeps. Therefore Lady Macbeth has to go retrieve it because Macbeth is too traumatized to return. Out of rage he kills the guards; this is the first murder Macbeth commits without consulting Lady Macbeth. Another example of how light comes into play is when Macbeth has the two murderess kill Banquo. Macbeth tells them to kill Banquo when he is on his way to his party with Fleance. A second example of how light imagery is used is when Macbeth says "And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. When he says "Out, out, brief candle" (V, V, 26) Macbeth is saying goodbye to Lady Macbeth.