“[Thunder and Lightning. Enter Three Witches] When shall we three meet again, In thunder, lightning, or rain?... When the HurlyBurly’s done, When the battle's lost and won” (Mac. 1.1. 1-2) In the opening scene we immediately can tell the use of Shakespeare’s imagery and use of supernatural elements. The play starts off with a horrid storm that associates with black magic and the war against Duncan. The quote also insists that the witches’ never mention daylight, instead only bad weather, proving that their power brews off dark energy. The witches also have a plan to meet with Macbeth and give him the three prophecies. Paranormal activity follows through the whole play, and is an important role because it leads you into how obscure things get. …show more content…
Two events are representing the discard of Duncan’s death. “And yet, dark night strangles the traveling lamp, Is’t night’s predominance or the days shame, That darkness does the face of earth entomb, When living light should kiss it?” (2.4.7-9) stated by Ross. This event is to paint a picture that in the middle of the day darkness fills the sky and covers the sun, this image shows that light and darkness also are showing good and evil. Additionally, in the play sunlight happens only twice because the majority is wicked. Ross suggests is night getting more powerful with what’s going on or is day hiding in sin. In fact, in this scene the horses ate one another, proving to the reader that power is out of whack and this isn't normal. It also makes the reader question whether the witches are have more magnitude than we think; are they making the animals do this and making Macbeth go crazy or is it a …show more content…
This figure weighs on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth with the killings of Duncan and Banquo. Blood conveys to the reader from seeing them deal with guilt and how it makes them go insane. Macbeth says “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood, Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather, The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red”(2.2.60-63) This is a metaphor saying that these huge waves will turn green into red blood, and nothing even this strong will get rid of his guilt. In result, Lady Macbeth thinks that if they wash their hands and get rid of the blood it will wash away his immorality. Even into Scene 5 you get an image of Lady Macbeth trying to wash away this imaginary spot of blood, because she’s trying so desperately to get rid of this remorse that’s it’s getting to her mental insanity. They start to realize it has stained their hands and they won’t be able to get clean from it, even causing Lady Macbeth to commit
The evil deed of murdering the king becomes too much of a burden on the Macbeths. The blood represents their crime, and they can not escape the sin of their actions. Macbeth realizes that in time he would get what he deserves. Since he can not ride himself of his guilt by washing the blood away, his fate may have been sealed. They
Blood is also used to display the guilt in Lady Macbeth near the end of the play. Throughout the play, Lady Macbeth is the one who tries to keep Macbeth sane and to keep from breaking.
As the play continues the supernatural is used more. Act 1 Scene 3 is Macbeth’s first meeting with the witches, and is also the first time the audience sees or experiences the witches’ supernatural abilities.
Thunder and lightning. Enter three witches. " This is the opening scene description just before the introduction to the witches. This shows their evil nature as the are followed by rough storms in dark conditions. Another quote is " Fair is fowl and fowl is fair:
The imagery of blood shows Lady Macbeth wants to get rid of her guilt. Lady Macbeth states, “And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood” (1.5. 49-50). Lady Macbeth is saying that she wants be filled with cruelty from top to bottom and to thicken her blood because she knows that from what she is about to do, she will get guilt.
Shakespeare uses a lot of imagery of night and darkness in Macbeth. This imagery is used to portray an image of a desolate, deranged place, full of tumult and disorder. Darkness and night imagery is also used to create an atmosphere of malevolence and misleading obscurity. Images of night and darkness are often used at times in the play when a death has occurred, or some other tragic event. Shakespeare also uses imagery of night and darkness in scenes with the witches, to make them seem evil and unruly. When someone is doing or thinking of something evil, there is often imagery of night and darkness, which helps to causes it to appear more evil and deranged. The images of night and darkness make the play more entertaining and captivating, which maintains the audience’s attention.
In Act 1 scene 5 lines 40-47, the blood changes into a form of betrayal when Lady Macbeth says, “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full of direst cruelty: make thick my blood, stop up the access and passage to remorse, that no compunctious visitings of nature shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between the effect of it.” She means that she wants to make herself insensitive and remorseless for the crime that she is about to commit. The evidence of blood is an evil symbol. Therefore, when Lady Macbeth says in Act 2 scene2 lines 48-57, “Smear the sleepy grooms with blood, and “If he do bleed, I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal, for it must seem their guilt”, she knows that smearing the blood will shift the guilt from her and Macbeth to the servants.
In “Macbeth” the first scene presents a meeting of three witches during stormy weather. Shakespeare shows disturbed, angry nature - thunder and lighting represent light - daytime and dark – night-time. Light is the metaphor for innocence, purity, truth, and goodness as opposed to dark - evil. It is also a suggestion that the innocent will suffer as well as the guilty. The fog and filthy air signify moral and spiritual obscurity and “the set of sun” means the end of the reign and kingship. The sun appears only twice – when Duncan sees the swallows flying around the castle of death and during the army gathering to purify the earth of its shame (traitors).
From the very beginning of the play, supernatural and unnatural forces have inspired and encouraged Macbeth. They interfere with natural events and completely change the character of Macbeth and his wife. Witches, apparitions, ghosts, and other unnatural images are used to demonstrate the evil effects and consequences those forces can have. Shakespeare is successful in telling his audience that only evil will come when Macbeth or any other person tampers with natural forces for personal gain.
He thinks this blood is permanent and cannot be cleaned. Blood can be cleaned easily by water and not be visible anymore, but it is that dark patch which blotches Macbeth’s conscience that cannot be erased. Macbeth using all of Neptune’s ocean is a hyperbole because he does not need that much water to wash blood off his hands. But he is not talking about the blood he can visually but instead of the blood that has tainted his soul and conscience. As the play progresses, Macbeth’s guilt actually decreases. He begins to commit more and more murders despite feeling incredibly guilt after his first. This shows how Macbeth progresses as a character. Killing for him has become a habit by the last act of the play and blood spilled selfishly, for personal gain, does not matter to him anymore. Therefore, Macbeth experienced guilt when he killed Duncan and “saw” blood on his
The image of blood plays an important role throughout Macbeth. Blood represents the murders that Macbeth had committed, the guilt that went along with the murders and the pain that it brought on him during his downfall. The soldier describes the violence and bloodshed, in the war between Scotland and Norway, "Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds." (I. ii. 43) foreshadows the violent nature of the play filled with murder, guilt and pain. Blood in the murder of King Duncan also plays a major role because it represents Macbeth's guilt as well as his shame for slaying King Duncan. Macbeth observes his blood stained hands and remarks "As they had seen me with these hangman's hands." (II. ii. 28) This reveals his guilt and shame because he is comparing his hands to those of an executioner's. After the murder, Macbeth refuses to return back to the bed chamber of Kind Duncan to smear the blood on the sleeping guards, because he is afraid that the blood will incriminate him further. Lady Macbeth smearing the blood onto the guards represents them trying to rub their guilt off onto the guard. "I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal, for it must seem their guilt" (II. ii. 73) but this proves to be ineffective because Macbeth ends up murdering t...
... him and says that a little water will do the job (II.ii.58?59). Later, though, she comes to share his horrified sense of being stained: ?Out, damned spot, out, I say . . . who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?? she asks as she wanders through the halls of their castle near the close of the play (V.i.30?34). Blood symbolizes the guilt that sits like a permanent stain on the consciences of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, one that hounds them to their graves.
In both Hamlet and Macbeth, the supernatural plays a very important role. Supernatural elements are crucial to the plot and they also have a more thematic part as well. Shakespeare presents the ghost in Hamlet, and the witches and ghost in Macbeth, as disrupting elements that not only enhance drama, but also tear apart the existing order of things. They force the title character of each play to undergo their own internal struggle that grows from their insecurity of living up to the image of a man.
In the English Renaissance, there was a strong belief in the existence of the supernatural. Thus, the supernatural is a recurring aspect in William Shakespeare 's Macbeth and is an integral and important part of the plot. The role of the supernatural in Macbeth is to bring out emotional reactions within Macbeth that cloud his judgement, affecting his actions which ultimately leads to his downfall. This is demonstrated through the ambiguous prophecies of the witches, the supernatural phenomenon that Macbeth sees, and the apparitions that foreshadow how he will meet his end.
In the opening scene of the play, the entrance of the three witches depicts the first presence of supernatural in Macbeth. The presence of the supernatural forces of the witches was accompanied by the dark, gloomy and thunderous ambience, perhaps functioning as a foreshadowing of future events that involves evil, wickedness and darkness. This is important as it gives the audience an idea of what might happen later in the play. For example, we see that later on in the play, Macbeth turned evil and wicked, killing an old and honourable King Duncan and a loyal friend, Banquo. I take particular note of the significance of darkness as it was later used by Macbeth when he calls upon the "seeling Night" (Act III. Scene ii. Line 46) which `makes clear vision impossible', as a way to cover up his evil deeds. Foreshadowing of `evilness' which is also a theme in the play is also created when the witches, before leaving the first scene, cried in unison that "Fair is foul and foul is fair" (Act I. Scene ii. Line 11). This line suggests and gives the audience a foreshadow that ...