Macbeth

Imagery Assignment

1. Darkness

In Macbeth, one of the types of imagery Shakespeare uses is the element of darkness. For every important, climactic, or remarkable part of this play, the scene is set to take place at night or in a dark and ignored place. All of the following events of the play take place at night and are reference to darkness: the vision of the dagger, the murder of Duncan, the murder of Banquo, and Lady Macbeth's sleep-walking.

The vision of the dagger takes place at night and in a darkened hall. Macbeth sees a dagger floating in the air in front of him with the handle towards him and the tip pointing towards Duncan. The handle is bloody and Macbeth cannot grasp the handle. This refers to darkness because it shows an evil and dark event happening at night. In this case the imagery is used to foreshadow events and establishes the atmosphere such as the evil of murder and the murder of Duncan.

The murder of Duncan occurs right after Macbeth imagines the dagger in the air. This takes place at night in the dark lit guestroom of Macbeth. King Duncan is sleeping in this room and Macbeth, during the night, murders Duncan with a dagger. This refers to darkness and dark night as a cold hearted, evil, and bloody event like murder takes place. In this case imagery is used to contrast characters such as Macbeth and Duncan and their 'Light' and 'Dark'.

The murder of Banquo takes place at dusk in a dark wooded park outside the palace. Banquo and Fleance approach on their horses and dismount. They light a torch (which shows how dark the area was) and are attacked by the murderers and Banquo is killed as Fleance escapes. This again shows reference towards darkness in Macbeth. So far every evil, bloody, cold hearted, and major part of the play has taken part at night or in the dark. In this case imagery is used to foreshadow events due to Fleance escape.

Finally the darkness of Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking. They all take part during the night and in the dark. This adds on to the relation of Macbeth and darkness as all of this takes part in the dark night. In this case imagery is used to illustrate deterioration of a character and to characterize such as the suicide of Lady Macbeth.

These are four references to darkness as they relate to Macbeth and exemplify Macbeth's main element to be darkness imagery. In 'Macbeth' I think the darkness symbolizes many things. First, and most importantly, it stands for the evil and death in the play. The darkness could partially