Darkness In Macbeth Essay

Written around 1606, Macbeth is recognized as one of Shakespeare’s greatest works. Macbeth deals

with the downfall of the title character Macbeth as he falls from a respected, decorated soldier to a

despised, tyrannical monarch. This fall from grace is accompanied by the motif of darkness. Darkness

serves to set the ominous and superstitious tone of the story, foreshadows events, and is used as a

symbolic device.

One of the uses of darkness is to establish the dark and mysterious tone. One example of darkness

being used to establish tone is when Lennox notes of the “unruly night.” (Act 2, Scene 3) Lennox also

points out that “the chimmneys were blown down”, meaning there were odd wind patterns, and that

the “obscure bird”, meaning owl, often associated with darkness, was noisy all night. This quote shows

the eerie events that happen at night and associates the darkeness of night with mysterious

happenenings. Another use of darkness for tone is when Lady Macbeth mentions it when she decides

that she would help Macbeth do the necessary dirty work to take the throne after reading his letter to

her. While she calls upon the dark spirits to strip away her feminity she also says “…nor heaven peep

through the blanket of the dark To cry “Hold, hold!”” (Act 1, Scene 5) In this quote Lady Macbeth is also

using darkness metaphorically as a way that she and her husband can keep their ambitions secret and

how the darkness serves as a cover so that no one can see them commit the murder. The secrecy that

the Macbeths desire helps add to the dark tone of the story. In both these quotes, darkness establishes

the enigmatic and cryptic tone that dominates the play.

In addition, darkness is used to ...

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since she decided to help Macbeth become king. It is a vain attempt to keep herself in a good light even

though she has done many bad things. While it physically keeps her in a bright state, it cannot take the

darkness out of her heart. This struggle adds to her insanity. In this scene darkness and light represent

good and evil as they often do in many stories.

Darkness is one of the more prominent motifs in Macbeth. It establishes the tone, foreshadows

events in the story, and is used as a symbolic device. When its uses are put together darkness helps

show us the theme. Macbeth is a tragedy, creully showing how fearless ambition can have disastrous

effects. One cannot get so far without suffering some consequences. Sometimes all the work put in just

isn’t worth the price you pay. And unfortunately for Macbeth it him cost everything.