Motif Of Night In Macbeth

No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red" Macbeth Quote (Act II, Sc. II).

A.C. Bradley wrote that about Macbeth: “darkness, we may even say blackness, broods over this tragedy... all the scenes which at once recur to memory take place either at night or in some dark spot.” The Tragedy of Macbeth contains many instances where darkness is represented and portrayed whether it occurs at night or the actions. Many actions that were completed by Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and the prophecies told by the witches, all have corrupt intentions or outcomes.

This imagery is typical in a Shakespearean tragedy, where a dark atmosphere is important in developing character and understanding the play. Darkness is used in both a natural and metaphorical sense and symbolizes many things such as death, obfuscation, and evil. Through the use of the mysterious witches, and the natural darkness of night, Shakespeare effectively creates a dramatic atmosphere for the play. The witches are seen by Banquo and Macbeth to be unnatural and evil. Banquo describes them, “wither'd and so wild in their attire,That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth” (A1, S3). These witches appear in darkness at the beginning of the play and Macbeth calls the day, “so foul and fair a day I have not seen” (A1, S3). This is the atmosphere in which the “unnatural” witches tell of a prophecy which goes against the natural laws of the world. Some very key scenes where great evil is done, happen under the cover of night, in a naturally dark environment. It is dark when Macbeth has the vision of a dagger, Duncan and Banquo are both murdered under cover of darkness, and Lady Macbeth sleep walks in the middle of the night even though she has a fear of darkness. Darkness is used to cover up guilty crimes, and to accentuate the sense of danger. Duncan is first murdered while he sleeps. Macbeth was hesitant to do this, until Lady Macbeth presented a way in which it could be done, and blamed on someone else. Macbeth murders Duncan in the middle of the

In Shakespeare play, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s character progresses in an interesting manner. Lady Macbeth is made to act as an incentive to Macbeth's immoral actions. Even though Macbeth is generally the person to have a final say before killing someone, Lady Macbeth plays the role of his “sidekick”. She mocks her husband if he worries over a sinful deed (which usually she instructs him to do), saying he would be less of a man if he does not follow through with their plan (I. vii. 56-57). She gives Macbeth a short lecture in deceptiveness when they are planning to kill King Duncan (I. vi. 73-78). She also prepared the daggers for Macbeth to kill Duncan in advance (II. ii. 15-16). Although her husband was still having doubts, she was always ready to go in for the kill. She did not think twice about it or feel any remorse. This shows that Lady Macbeth evolved into looking like a humble and quieter person on the exterior, but being an insane woman and criminal due to the events that have affected her.

Everyone has a quality that they do not like about themselves. Some people struggle to be social, others may be too controlling of people. The list goes on and on, but the point is that everybody has a particular quality that they must learn to control or else that particular quality can get out of hand. Of course, one could write a list of characters that have major flaws. There is no better example than William Shakespeare’s character, Macbeth, in The Tragedy of Macbeth. Anyone who has ever read it, could easily identify the fatal flaw that the character Macbeth possesses which is greed. Even though many readers can all agree that greed is Macbeth’s fatal flaw, the argument as to whether or not

Light and dark plays a big role in imagery as it sets the mood; darkness where evil deeds occur and the light as revealing the deeds. Macbeth is speaking to himself on the side after Malcolm is crowned Prince of Cumberland. “Stars, hide your fires! Let not the light see my black and deep desires”(I.iv.50-51). Macbeth is so greedy that he does not want anyone to see his dark desires to capture the throne:”The idea that only in darkness can such evil deeds be done is ever present”(Spurgeon 124). Macbeth is telling his wife how Banquo and his son, Fleance, need to die. “Come, seeling night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day And with thy bloody and invisible hand Cancel the tear to pieces that great bond which keeps me pale! Light thickens and the crow Makes wing to the rooky wood.(Shakespeare, III.ii.46-57). He is calling for the night to cover the daylight so that Banquo can be killed. Macbeth is telling the murderer to kill Banquo and his son.

As the play goes, Macbeth shows a character of free will. Although his destiny was pre-determined for him by the witches, he took action to believe and to make sure that his prophecies will come true. Macbeth is a strong character with many deep desires that include gaining power, and so throughout the play with the many crimes he had committed, there was no turning back for him. In all, his decisions help shape the future ahead of him.

With the sleep motif, the author has successfully showed Macbeth’s sense of guilt and feelings. Macbeth returns to his room and tells his wife about a strange voice that he heard after killed Duncan,“Methought I heard a voice cry “Sleep no more!/ Macbeth does murder sleep”—the innocent sleep,/ Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care,/ The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath,/ Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,/ Chief nourisher in life’s feast”(2.2.47-51). Deep down inside Macbeth, he has the feeling of guilt because he murder

The play, Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, presents many societal issues, such as the influence of superstition and the supernatural, as well as the continuous desire of the human race for progress and ambitious fulfilment. What a person chooses to do in order to fulfil those desires depends on the individuals themselves, and in the case of Macbeth, he turns to murder in order to advance his social and political standing. The audience’s perception of Macbeth changes throughout the play, beginning with feelings of admiration and approval of his deeds and character, and ending, with the play and as well as his life, as feelings of contempt and disgust at his treachery. This is achieved mainly through the progression of Macbeth’s character development, as well as through the dialogue of himself and other characters.

Macbeth has murdered the king. Shakespeare introduces a guilty, consious stricken mood. Macbeth feels that he has murdered an innocent man when he is at his most purest. A man who is at peace sleeping. This is shown in act 2 scene 2 when it states "Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor / Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more!" (41-42). This evidence shows that he believes sleep will not come to him ever again. Lady Macbeth is showing a deeper side of brute evilness. She essentialy tells him to suck it up. Macbeth is feeling very guilty. He won’t even bring himself to look at the blood on his hands. Macbeth’s guiltiness is multiplied by the blood on his hands. The text states,”Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this Blood clean from my hand? No, This hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red“. Showing But Macbeth is aware of the guiltiness that comes with the murder. He is still stained with the blood of guilt. Lady Macbeth then states,”My hands are of your color, but I shame to wear a heart so white.“This is showing us even more how unsympathetic lady Macbeth is. She is calling her huband a coward for worrying so

Whenever a murder is done it is at night time so that it is dark. “Come seeling night” Macbeth says. He says this dialogue on the evening before he murders Duncan, he feels guilty about the ‘evil’ his is about to commit. I think Shakespeare uses this technique of symbolising light vs dark to show the audience how Macbeth is feeling towards all this ‘evil’ he is committing. Terrible deeds are always to be committed in the dark. This is shown by the dialogue “stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires”. Macbeth doesn’t want there to be stars in the sky because he doesn’t want them to shine their light on his evil and murderous thoughts. Shakespeare purposely uses the darkness to show the audience what Macbeth is about to do. In the light of the day we feel safe, but in the darkness we fear it because we don’t know what is there that we cannot see. Most of the play is set in the dark which reflects on Macbeth’s evil thoughts and actions throughout the play. The Jacobeans know that Scotland is no longer safe because it falls into and endless darkness with all Macbeths evil

In preparing herself, Lady Macbeth asks: “’…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) Lady Macbeth uses night’s assistance to hide her evil deed. The darkness of the night lends itself to the darkness of Lady Macbeth’s soul and is sought only when evil is abounded. The use of night is used by Shakespeare to show that Lady Macbeth wants to use night so she would not be able to see the wound when she kills the King; she wants to use night as a mask to hide her evil intentions.

In William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, darkness and blackness are repeatedly used as symbols of evil, representing the misdeeds conducted by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. After three witches predict Macbeth’s future and tell him that he will become King of Scotland, Macbeth thinks about murdering the current king, Duncan, and exclaims “Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires” (1.4.50-51). Macbeth’s wicked yearning of committing murder is ‘black’ and must be concealed by darkness because it is too horrible to be looked upon. His desire to kill is depicted as ‘dark’, which connotes evil, and is too horrible that Macbeth asks the heavens to conceal it. Furthermore, as Lady Macbeth is planning King Duncan’s murder, she

On the other end of the spectrum, Macbeth must deal with the moral uncertainty of the actions he does commit. When he goes to kill Duncan, the dagger appears, which he judges to be “A dagger of the mind, a false creation /Proceeding from the heat oppressèd brain” (II.i.38-39). It is something that has materialized because he has a humoral imbalance. This is the “psychic distress” Roychoudhury says, “threatens often to undo the protagonists” (218). Because his mind is not right, Macbeth goes down a path of self-destruction. Macbeth does not murder all of his possible enemies at once, it takes four separate murders until he is finished. This goes against Machiavelli’s prescription in The Prince: “Violence must be inflicts once and for all; people will then forget what it tastes like and so be less resentful” (32). Though the audience does not get a chance to see whether the people are resentful, Macbeth is resentful of himself. He has “terrible dreams / that shake us nightly” (III.ii.18-19), violent nightmares, because of his guilt from murdering Duncan. His own rumination contains the same idea: “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well / It were done quickly” (I.vii.1-2). The repetition of the “w” sound evokes the madness behind Macbeth’s thoughts. This is not easy to get out when spoken. His words are more than his tongue can handle, he cannot manage to get everything done all at once. The state Macbeth usurped to obtain is in trouble by Machiavelli’s standards

This eerie request of nature to bring forth the night in efforts to shroud his malicious intentions is suspicious, and foreshadows a vicious circle of crime, solely fueled by Macbeth’s hamartia – ambition. With this in mind, Macbeth is fully aware that his ambition is a fatal characteristic. The audience witnesses this consciousness that Macbeth possesses during another soliloquy, in which he realizes that murdering Duncan is a dishonourable act. However, in sharp contrast to this reasoning, Macbeth argues: