Macbeth Symbolism Essays (1579 words) - English-language Films

Macbeth Symbolism With its eye-opening plot and interesting cast of characters, William Shakespeare's play, Macbeth is one of the greatest works one could ever read. But, above all, the aspect of the play is most impressive and overwhelming with imagery and symbolism that Shakespeare so brilliantly uses. Throughout the play , the author depicts various types of imagery and symbolism instances that , eventually , lead to the downfall of the main character , Macbeth. Instances of imagery and symbolism are seen throughout the play. Imagery and symbolism are unavoidable features in William Shakespeare's Macbeth. One of the most prominent symbolic factors in the play is the presence of blood. It has been noted that the presence of blood "increases the feelings or fear , horror , and pain" (Spurgeon , Pg. 20). From the appearance of the bloody sergeant in the second scene of the to the very last scene , there is a continued vision of blood all throughout the play. The imagery of blood seems to affect almost all the characters in the play. It affects Lady Macbeth in the scene in which she is found sleepwalking talking to herself after the murders of Duncan and Banquo : "Here's the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." [V. i. 50-1] Also , the blood imagery is present in the "weird sisters" , or witches. Most evidently , it is present in act four , scene one , when Macbeth visits the witches to seek their insight and his fortune for the future. He is shown three apparitions , one of which is a bloody child that commands him to "Be bloody , bold and resolute : laugh to scorn..." [IV. i. 79] Although blood imagery deals with almost all the characters of the play , no where is it more profound than with the protagonist himself , Macbeth. In the very beginning of the play , it is reported by the sergeant that Macbeth and Banquo are "[bathing] in reeking wounds." [I. ii. 42] Again , blood is found haunting Macbeth in act two , scene one of the play , in which a visionary dagger is stained with "gouts of blood." In the same act and scene , after the murder Duncan , Macbeth cries declares that nothing , even "great Neptune's oceans" , will be able to cleanse the blood that stains his hand : "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." [II. ii. 58-60] Next , the image of blood is induced when Macbeth calls upon the "bloody and invisible hand" of night to help the murderers he has hired carry out their assassination of Banquo and his son , Fleance. Then , Macbeth realizes that "blood will have blood" and that his murderous plots will all come to and end with his death. Finally , at the end of the banquet scene , Macbeth confesses that he is "in blood , stepp'd in so far that , should [he] wade no more , returning [would be] as tedious as to go o'er." [III. iv. 136-7] Through all these instances of blood symbolism and imagery , it is obvious that "Macbeth is about blood." (Muir , Pg. 271 ) Yet another form of symbolism used in the play is that of unnaturalness. Throughout the work , it is used in the constant referral to Macbeth's crime of murder and emphasizes the fact it is not natural and , in turn , is a"convulsion of nature." (Spurgeon , Pg. 20) Although powerful , the idea of unnaturalness occurs mostly in one part of the play , immediately before and after the murder of Duncan. Macbeth , obviously bothered by the act that he had just committed , states how Duncan's wounds "look'd like a breach in nature for ruin's wasteful entrance." [II. iii. 118] Then , Macbeth continues on by saying that he had "murdered sleep" , another unnatural occurrence, "I heard a voice cry , ?Sleep no more! Macbeth does murther sleep...Glamis hath murder'd sleep , and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more.'" [II. ii. 26-36] Next , the unnatural events of the night continue when Macduff and Lenox , Duncan's sons , tell Macbeth of the "strange events" of the night, "The night has been unruly. Where we lay , our chimneys