William Shakespeare's Use Of Symbolism In Macbeth

In tragedies, characters often serve to act as instruments of the suffering of others. This is particularly true in the play Macbeth, in which the main character’s actions lead to the subsequent distress and woe of other characters. In the play, the main character, Macbeth, directly contributes to the anguish of other characters, succumbing to his own bloodthirstiness as he ruthlessly removes threats to his desired power. Macbeth brings great suffering upon others, and the subsequent violence and carnage adds to the distress and tragedy of the play as a whole; the tragic vision of the play is consequently exemplified.

1) "We have scorched the snake, not killed it. She'll close and be herself whilst our poor malice Remains in danger of her former tooth. "(Act 3 Scene 2) 2) Here Macbeth says that they have wounded the opposition, but he is still in danger, and the opposition will heal itself.

In the play ‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare, light and dark imagery is used throughout the story in order to show the difference and symbolism between good and evil. Light represents innocence, truth and purity while darkness is used to represent cruelty, guilt and corruption. Towards the end of the play, Shakespeare correlates the ideas of both lightness and darkness to portray life and death. Ultimately, they represent good and evil. Shakespeare uses these two themes to drive the plot and story forward in order to create conflict, twists and symbolism.

Macbeth is the ultimate story of a fight between the forces of good and evil. It tells the tale of a tragic hero whose quest for power leads to his ultimate downfall. Macbeth starts out as an honorable warrior but changes when his ambition becomes uncontrollable. As he becomes increasingly paranoid, Macbeth uses violent means to eliminate threats to his Scottish throne. As the play progresses, blood continuously plays a part in the events as the murders become more frequent. William Shakespeare, the author of Macbeth, uses blood imagery to develop Macbeth’s character, create a foil in between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and to symbolize honor and guilt.

Throughout history, writers have developed a plethora of literary devices.  This allows them to essentially spice up their writing, or make it more interesting to the reader.  One of the most commonly used and talked about literary devices is theme; theme is a specific idea or lesson that an author is trying to get across.  Just a few examples are, ambition, guilt, things may not always be what they seem, or even nature verses the unnatural.  In fact, these are common themes used by one of the greatest play writes of all time, Shakespeare.  All throughout arguably his most renowned play, Macbeth, we see Shakespeare use each of the four previously listed themes.

She tells the sprits ‘Come to my woman breasts/And take my milk for gall’ so that she can get rid of all the kindness within her-blood and milk form her breasts- Shakespeare uses ‘direst cruelty’ to express the desperation running through Lady Macbeth and with this Shakespeare creates a very hell-like picture for the audience. However, eventually Lady Macbeth persuasion overcomes Macbeth and finally he agrees to kill Duncan. ‘Let light not see my black and deep desires’, this shows Macbeths ambitions are not of good intention and turns to the universe to express this ambition (about how great it is) It also shows that even though he wants to kill Duncan, the audience is still finding Macbeth arguing whether or not to do it. Shakespeare also uses alliteration to emphasize the amount evil involved in this deed. In relation, Shakespeare shows Macbeth willing to jump the hierarchy of position. ‘We’d jump the life to come’ show the willingness to jump the hierarchy, which instantly shows the relation to the archangel which went against God and the hierarchy of Heaven to create his own land of chaos which is better known as hell. Moreover, Lady Macbeth is shown with even more evil to represent her will for Macbeth to complete the deed, ‘I have given suck and know how tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me: I would while it was smiling in my face, Have plucked my nipple from

Shakespeare explores guilt in Macbeth through Lady Macbeth, she is a strong-willed character who is ambitious and will do anything to achieve her desires, but her ambition and strong desire turn on her. After she convinces Macbeth to murder the king he was stuck in a hole and had to commit unforgivable atrocities to keep his power. Lady Macbeth shows her guilt ridden conscious in the lines “The thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now? What, will these hands ne’er be clean?" Shakespeare uses these rhetorical questions to show Lady Macbeth's thoughts and guilt-ridden mind. She also says, “Here’s the smell of the blood, still, all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” Shakespeare uses the metaphor of the blood-stained hands to give the reader the understanding that Lady Macbeth knows what she has done was unforgivable and she will never be free from the jail of guilt. This use of guilt Shakespeare's Macbeth shows how your decisions in your life have consequences on other people and as shown by Lady Macbeth's downfall, can destroy

The motif is sleep/dreams which relates to the characterization and mood that the audience feels as scary, mysterious, and that the mood is overwhelming. The motif sleep/dreams relates to the characterization and mood that is overwhelming to the audience. When Lady Macbeth speaks to Macbeth and says “I laid their daggers ready: he could not miss em…. My fathers as he slept, I had done it.” (Macbeth 2.1 13-21). The quote relates to the thesis being overwhelming because Macbeth is speaking to Lady Macbeth about the murder of the king which gives a sense of them being overwhelmed. Also, when Macduff is speaking to Lady Macbeth he says, “Shake off this downy sleep death’s counterfeit, And look on death itself. Up, up, and see, The great doom’s

The play Macbeth is about a Scottish general who is told by witches that he will one day become King of Scotland. Swayed by the prophecies of the magical witches and pressured by his wife, Macbeth is fueled with ambition and greed which prompts him to kill King Duncan and take his place as ruler. However, Macbeth’s abundance of ambition has a price, as it comes back to haunt him and ultimately leads to his demise. In Macbeth, William Shakespeare utilizes the symbols blood, a dagger, and a ghost to exemplify Macbeth’s guilt and support the theme that ambition produces guilt from unwise and immoral decisions when one is power hungry. To begin with, blood is symbolized by Shakespeare to illustrate Macbeth’s guilt. After killing Duncan, Macbeth

This serves as a reminder of how Macbeth was affected by guilt of his murder and began to see visions. Since the stories that the Porter describes all have negative outcomes, this can be interpreted as foreboding. Shakespeare could be hinting at that the fall of Macbeth is coming later in the play. Once again, Shakespeare has strategically placed a soliloquy in a manner that reminds the audience of the effects of guilt on specific

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

Soliloquies provide the audience with a unique insight into the thoughts of the speaker. When they are delivered, the focus is entirely on the character as they share their own deepest thoughts. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the protagonist includes descriptive metaphors, repulsive imagery, and gory diction to emphasize the gruesome nature of the killing and Macbeth’s disbelief.

     Shakespeare used clothing both symbolically and as a vehicle of character definition. Clothes were often used in Macbeth's case to symbolize his titles.  Symbolic clothing is identified when Ross tells Macbeth of his new title Thane of Cawdor when Macbeth does not know of the Thane's treason,

The porter scene enhances Macbeth by playing the significant role of both a comic relief scene for the audience and a microcosm of the murder scene. Looking at the scene from the perspective of a comic relief, the porter scene provides the audience with some humor after the ongoing tragedy. The Porter’s mockery of the people knocking at the door, along with his humorous exchange with Macduff, relieves some tension, while also deliberately encapturing the prior scene. The Porter, in his drunken state, impersonates the porter of the “Hell Gate,” (II.iii.1-2) as he heads to open the door for three kinds of sinners. This not only asserts that Macbeth’s castle has now become Hell, but the three kinds of sinners also represent the developed personalities of the owners of

The highly acclaimed play called Macbeth often uses many literary devices and imagery to come to a conclusion about a topic. One of the frequent uses of imagery in this play is the imagery of sleep and death. Shakespeare often uses the sleep and death imagery to set a tense and eerie tone in the play. This is seen in the actions of Lady Macbeth in act 5 of the play, the actions of the character Macbeth, and the scene of and following Duncan’s death.