How Does Shakespeare Use Garden Motifs In Macbeth

Despite the fact that Macbeth was written a few hundred years ago, many of the themes and motifs used in the play are still considered effective literary devices in today’s world. Shakespeare uses his themes and motifs very effectively. First, Macbeth uses the theme of sleep very effectively in many scenes of the play. Second, Shakespeare uses the clothing and garden motifs, which are two very powerful motifs to reinforce our visualization and understanding of parts of the play. Lastly, the main theme of the play, “fair is foul and foul is fair” is seen constantly throughout the play. These themes and motifs all contribute to the effectiveness of Shakespeare’s writing.

During the play, sleep is a reoccurring theme of the play. In the play,

First when the wounded sergeant tells Duncan the news of the battle, he compares Macbeth, Banquo and the Scottish forces to the flowers of a garden and the evil rebel Macdonwald and the Norwegian king to the weeds in the garden. Second, when the battle in Dunsinane is won and Malcolm is crowned King of Scotland, he compares Scotland to a garden just starting to grow because Scotland needs to rebuild itself from the corruption of Macbeth’s short yet devastating rule of Scotland. Lastly, when Lady Macbeth reminds Macbeth that he must look like a flower, which would be pleasing and friendly. But, she also wants him to be the dangerous serpent underneath. Macbeth’s expressions on his face in this case are being compared to plants and creatures in a garden. However, the last garden motif mentioned can also double as an example of the theme “fair is foul and foul is

First, there are the witches that Shakespeare chose use as agents of darkness that fit perfectly into the theme of “fair is foul and foul is fair”. The witches believed that anything ugly was beautiful and anything beautiful was ugly and only wanted to harm humans despite their seemly friendly equivocations. Shakespeare also uses this theme effectively by masking over certain character’s foul intentions with fair appearances such as Macbeth or Lady Macbeth. Examples of this happening in the play are when Lady Macbeth is constantly telling Macbeth to look like the flower, but be the serpent underneath; which means that Lady Macbeth wants Macbeth to look like a friendly flower, but be the sinister venomous serpent underneath it. Also, in the last speech of Lady Macduff before she is murdered, she comments on how now that Scotland has become so corrupt, evil deeds have been accepted as normal, while performing good deeds might be scorned or ignored. This also represents a reversal aspect of the theme “fair is foul and foul is fair” because the views of good and bad have been completely flipped. This is one of the most effective themes Shakespeare uses in his