Imagery In Macbeth Essay Research Paper The

Imagery In Macbeth Essay, Research Paper

The play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, is regarded as one of Shakespeare.s best tragedies. It deals with a man named Macbeth, who is introduced as a strong, brave war hero. He has the respect of the king and his peers. The predictions of three witches that Macbeth will become king begin Macbeth.s descent into his own downfall. He decides to take his fate into his own hands, The play Macbeth is full of images and motifs that recur many times throughout the play. The images of light and darkness are referenced to multiple times. There are many occurrences where hands are mentioned. The motif of equivocations is constantly brought up throughout the play. However, there were three images that stood out. The images of birds, sleep and blood are pivotal to setting the mood and developing the characters in the play Macbeth.

There are many occurrences of birds throughout the play. Birds are used for many purposes. Some birds signify power, some signify strength, some signify honor, and many birds are of ill omen. They are used in the descriptions of characters. They are used to make an analogy of what is occurring in the play, whether they are used in place of people or to mimic the situation at hand. In the first mention of birds in the play, they are used to show the high military power of Macbeth and Banquo. In Act 1, Scene 2, the Sergeant tells King Duncan how just at the moment when Macbeth.s forces defeated Macdonwald.s rebels, the Norwegian king attacked the Scots. King Duncan asks if the new attack dismayed Macbeth. The Sergeant, making a sarcastic joke, says, .Yes, as sparrows [dismay] eagles, or the hare the lion.. He uses this analogy to show that the strong Macbeth was not to be bothered. The next mention of birds is after Macbeth spoke with the witches and he had sent a letter telling of the encounter to Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth discovers that King Duncan is coming to spend the night at her castle. Lady Macbeth says, .The raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements.. The raven is commonly known as an image of ill omen, and Lady Macbeth means that the raven is hoarse from saying repeatedly how Duncan must die. In arguably the most important scene in the novel, while Macbeth goes to murder Duncan, Lady Macbeth waits and listens. She hears the screech of an owl. She says, .Hark! Peace! It was the owl that shriek.d, the fatal bellman, which gives the stern.st good-night. He is about it.. The cry of a screech owl is thought to announce a death, and a .fatal bellman. is a night watchman who rings a bell to call a prisoner to his hanging. Lady Macbeth is glad to hear the shriek of the owl, because it signifies that Macbeth is in the process of murdering the King. In the last use of birds in the novel, Ross and an Old Man are discussing the odd things that have happened since the murder of King Duncan the night before. The old man says, .A falcon, towering in her pride of place, was by a mousing owl hawk.d at and kill.d.. The falcon.s .pride of place. is the highest point of its flight. And the owl, which usually catches mice on the ground, went up in the air instead of down and killed a falcon. Also, a falcon is a day creature and a royal companion, where the owl is an untamable bird of night and death. Relating that occurrence to the events taking place, it could be said that Duncan was the falcon, and Macbeth the owl.

Sleep is also a recurring image in the play Macbeth. People sleep to relax. When people don.t sleep, they become more high-strung and stressed out. Macbeth hardly sleeps throughout the entire play, to signify the huge amount of tension on his back throughout the play. He sees sleep as a reward, something to take pressure off of him. When nightmares or restlessness disturb sleep, an uneasy mood is created. A nightmare usually tells of things to come. On the night that Macbeth murders Duncan, Banquo says to his son, .A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, and yet I would not sleep; merciful powers, restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature gives way to in repose!. Banquo does not specify what is disturbing his sleep, but it is assumed it is most likely the witches. prophecies. Later in the same scene, Macbeth suggests that he would reward Banquo if Banquo would somehow assist him in something having to do with the witches. prophecies. Banquo shows that he is suspicious of Macbeth.s motives, and Macbeth ends the conversation by wishing Banquo .good repose,. or a good night.s sleep. After Banquo goes to bed, Macbeth hallucinates, seeing a bloody dagger in the air. He tells himself that it is the time of night for such a hallucination. .Now o.er the one half-world nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse the curtain.d sleep.. Sleep is .curtain.d. because the beds of the time period had curtains around it to keep out drafts. Macbeth states that in the dark of night, wicked dreams can penetrate the curtains and sleep itself. Another occurrence is right after Macbeth murders King Duncan. Staring at his bloody hands, he tells his wife that as he left the King.s chamber, he heard two men in the other room. .There.s one did laugh in.s sleep, and one cried .Murder!.. To him, it.s as though the men, even in their sleep, could see his bloody murderer.s hands. Moments later, Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that he thought he heard a voice telling him he would never sleep again