Darkness in Macbeth Essay

  The tragedy of Macbeth comes about because of a single event in his life. If that one moment, the meeting with the witches on the heath, had not happened then Macbeth would no doubt have gone on to be a loyal and respected subject of King Duncan and, later, King Malcolm. However, the meeting did happen and the powerful force of ambition was unleashed within Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. It is the combination of these two factors, the meeting with the witches and Macbeth's own inner demons, that lead to tragedy, and make the play 'terrifying' in the Aristotelian sense.

William Shakespeare wrote the play Macbeth in approximately 1606. The play is a tragedy and this can be often identified before we have even read the play. The title “Macbeth” alone suggests the genre of the play is a tragedy as it is the name of a character. Life in Shakespeare’s time was very religious and the play was written in order to please King James I who was on the throne at this point. The idea of the theme of religion and witchcraft fitting into the play was also to please King James I as he was interested in witchcraft. The majority of people living in Shakespeare’s time were Christians and they believed that if you lived a good life, you would go to Heaven and if you were bad in life, you would go to Hell. At the time of the

In Macbeth, light is a symbol of harmony and order, but darkness is just the opposite. Darkness is the chaos and evil that results from a broken Great Chain of Being.

After the moon is down, Banquo speaks to Macbeth about his dream,“All’s well./ I dreamt last night of the three Weïrd Sisters./ To you they have showed some truth”(2.1.24-26). The mood is dark because it is about the prophecy. It is also a sign of bad thing is about to happen. What might happen in order for Macbeth become king. Banquo mention the prophecy that Macbeth will be king. But in order for Macbeth become king Duncan has to die. So there will be something evil happens later on. Macbeth is walking to Duncan’s room and havings a conversation with himself before commit the crime, “Now o’er the one-half world/ Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse/ The curtained sleep”(2.1.61-63). The author create a dark mood by saying half of the world is sleeping as death. And this is the darkest time of the night. Half of world is sleeping and he is about to commit the crime. This is the midnight, the darkest part of the night when people all sleep like death and wicked dreams abuse them. These quotes have contributed to the dark and evil theme of the

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair," a quote from the play that is said by the witches in Act 1, Scene 1. This quote shows us the evil within the witches. Throughout the play, whenever we encounter the witches the mood changes to dark and gloomy. They are very mischievous and this has a lot to do with their supernatural powers. One of the most noticeable differences between them and the other characters are that they speak in rhyme, this shows how different they are compared to the other characters.. The witches use Macbeth's vulnerability to manipulate his life by using their powers to destruct his mind and everything he once was. The first encounter between Macbeth, Banquo and the witches (Act 1, Scene 3), Macbeth brushes off what they have to tell him but Banquo thinks they should listen to them and is not frightened at all. Macbeth then becomes afraid of the witches and their powers, at first he never believed them, but once he sees that their sayings are coming true, such as towards the end when he sees the forest starting to come against him (Act 5, Scene 5), he starts to realize that they have mislead him and took him to his own death. The witches cause both Macbeth’s rise to power and the fall to his death. Through the influence of the Weird Sisters’ prophecies, Macbeth transforms from a noble military general into a ruthless tyrant overcome with madness for power, eventually leading to the death of Macbeth.

In this play in particular, light represented the good while dark represented the evil. Shakespeare refer to the imagery multiple times through character’s speeches. One way it is shown is when Macbeth calls on the darkness to hide his vicious thoughts and says “Let not light see my black and deep desires” (I.iiii.58) when Duncan claims him as the Thane of Cawdor.This is a turning point of the play because the first prophecy becomes true where is he now the Thane of Cawdor and makes Macbeth aim for the throne since there is now hope that the other prophecies become true. This also ignites Macbeth’s downfall towards the dark side as the quote shows. He furthermore says “The eye wink at the hand! Yet let it be” (I.iiii.59). In short, he is saying that he will not let his mind and conscience see what his actions and hands are doing. This further establishes that his conscience is warning him to not commit such wrong acts however his ambitions to capture the throne overpowers. Additionally, Lady Macbeth also begins to join the evil side like her husband once she found out that the prophecy came true. She delivers a speech in Act 1, Scene 5 which displays the willingness she has to do whatever is necessary to seize the crown. Her powerful ambition is the driving force of her husband’s doings since he is doubtful. In the speech she requests the dark to “ “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.53-57) which means she wants the evil or ‘night’ to hide the atrocious actions which will occur. This concludes that Lady Macbeth also does not want anything or anyone such a conscience to see what dishonourable behaviour she will be convey, which is similar to what her husband wants. As in result, Shakespeare illustrates the strong concept of moral

When they commit the murder of their loyal friend, Duncan, this cues the beginning of many tragedies that will occur. Duncan’s murder occurs in darkness leaving him oozing with blood by the daggers that he was slain with he never expected coming from Macbeth and his wife. For example Shakespeare says “And yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp: Is’t night’s predominance, or the day’s shame, that darkness does the face of each entomb, when living light should kiss it” (2.4.7-10)? This is explaining Duncan’s death and when the sun goes down and darkness is upon, bad things begin to

Macbeth over the course of the play a key technique is utilised to portray deceptive appearance through the use of foreshadowing. Shakespeare in many of his tragedies includes supernatural elements, but Macbeth stands out for its darker tone. The three witches introduced in the first act as the three weird sisters, tell of prophecies. From the beginning they tell the audience “Fair is foul, and foul is fair’, portraying appearances are not always as they seem. Macbeth kills the king of Scotland and in the following scene showcases foreshadowing when, Macbeth hears a voice in his head, 'Sleep no more!’. (2.2.35) This foreshadows both Macbeth's insomnia and his wife's eventual slip into insanity. The Elizabethan audience would likely take the opening scene with the foreshadowing witches very seriously, as during that time the majority of people believed in witches. Whereas a modern day audience may feel these scenes are less

A lone dark murderer premeditates the death of another, fueled by the personal hatred and deceived by the deep desire of wealth rewarded after the done deed. As the anxious assassin gets ever so close to the day, he is overtaken by both thoughts of paranoia and guilt. The killer makes a split decision to finish the job, in what will be the horror of murder. This was the case of Macbeth, a man of worldly ambition and selfish desire, who is consequently led down the grisly path of killing in order to assume the throne and attain provisional happiness. The vivid imagery of murder in Macbeth, creates the atmosphere of tension and anxiety in the natural world. Macbeth effectively uses imagery of darkness and nature to create the atmosphere of treachery.

This is ironic because the witches appear fair and “help” Macbeth however their help turns Macbeth foul and cruel enough to commit parenticide. The line “double,double toil and trouble”(4.1.10-11) also shows that what the witches say can have a double meaning which is how Macbeth is fooled into Killing king Duncan.(p. 4)The witches are shown to have numerous powers throughout the play”What can the devil speak true”(1.3.112) this quote shows that the witches can tell the future which is shown when they tell what will happen to macbeth to him and banquo.The witches are also shown to have supernatural powers when they conjure the three apparitions “ Macbeth shall never vanquished be until great birnam wood to high dunsinane hill come against him”(4.1.106-7)The Pure impossibility of this happening gives macbeth a false sense of security that the witches prophecy takes advantage of.(p. 5)William shakespeare challenges his viewers to remember that a few words can cause a devastating amount of trouble. However the cause of everything can be when someone hears and idea or prophecy they believe and want to make it come true by any

Throughout Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”, the word night is attributed to darkness, treachery, and danger; the word is typically used in relation to heinous actions such as the death of King Duncan and Banquo. Weeee

Macbeth displays a glimpse of darkness after he discovers that King Duncan has announced that Malcolm The Prince of Cumberland will in the future take the throne and become the new King of Scotland. Consequently, Macbeth realizes that this jeopardize his

The witches are merely a guide for Macbeth’s actions. They can predict and suggest but cannot control. “If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me without my stir” (Act I, scene iii). Macbeth blames the supernatural for his actions where he allows the predictions of the witches to motivate and manipulate

Mr. Kenneth Muir, in his introduction to the play - which does not, by the way, interpret it simply from this point of view - aptly describes the cumulative effect of the imagery: "The contrast between light and darkness [suggested by the imagery] is part of a general antithesis between good and evil, devils and angels, evil and grace, hell and heaven . .

Therefore, the witches are contact by Macbeth to do evil stuff on people he knows that know of his dirty work. As he first started calling them he said,” Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts…. Whatever in your