The idea that she consciously recognises the need for “murdering ministers” to provide her with the support to assist Macbeth in regicide certainly falls in favour of arguing that she willingly has the desire for help from the darker realms, making her more evil for actually wanting to be tainted by the poisonous associations of “darkness” in the play. In addition, concealment is a significant device employed into the plot of Macbeth. In Act 3 scene 2, Macbeth hides his dark plans away from Lady Macbeth. Through concealment, Shakespeare allows readers to gain an insight to the ever-changing relationship between the couple. Macbeth tells his wife to “be
The image of light and darkness are used to highlight good and evil. When Lady Macbeth was attempting to conjure up the courage to go on with the murder, she asks darkness to make her like a man in order to carry out the deed. She is quoted saying “Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry 'Hold, hold! '” The use of darkness in this scene tells the reader just how desperate she is to become Queen. She would go as far as to ask evil to fill her soul with hate and take her remorse in order to gain power.
Act 2 Scene 2 Essay Act 2 Scene 2 starts after Macbeth speaks a soliloquy about the terrible deed he is going to do. The soliloquy he speaks portrays his fear of killing Duncan, his fear that he will be caught in the act of murder and the supernatural theme running throughout his soliloquy. At the start, Macbeth sees a vision, a ‘dagger which I see before me’ which evidently shows that he is thinking about the murder he is about to commit. The reader can interpret this vision very differently, by saying that Macbeth is going mad from fear and it is ‘a dagger of the mind, a false creation’ before him, which creates a sense of panic and curiosity, as the reader is not sure whether he is stable enough to go through with the murder. The other interpretation is that something supernatural and scary is at work, that the dagger is a sign from the witches Macbeth spoke to.
Macbeth is scared by the blood of Duncan. However, the blood may not be seen by others since it is only figurative. It is the eternal reminder to those characters of the terrible sin that they have committed. This symbol functions as a figurative tattoo that may not be removed from the hands. It drives Lady Macbeth to insanity that will eventually bring her to her collapse.
As the play goes on, Macbeth slowly looses his morality as he strives for more control whilst Lady Macbeth steps into a frantic stage of guilt. After killing the king, Macbeth starts to plot other evil undertakings as he becomes nervous that someone will take away his power. At one point he goes from wanting to needing the sovereignty, which makes him loose sight of his integrity. As Macbeth begins to immorally act in order to achieve what he hungers, the line between good and evil starts to fade. “I am in blood / Stepp’d in so far, that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o’er.” (3.4.136-138) In this quote, Macbeth is telling himself that because he has stepped into evil so deeply, it will be hard to go back to morallity because he will never be able to rid of this guilt brought onto him.
The idea of being unable to cleanse the mind and the spirit is closely tied to the play’s themes of order and disorder and light and dark. The killing of Duncan has upset the spiritual order of the world and the ability to distinguish between what is real and what is imagined. This confusion is mirrored in the character of Macbeth who, quite literally, has replaced order with disorder on every level, including the spiritual order. This mirroring reinforces the themes of appearances not being what they seem, but also foreshadows the madness and suicide of Lady Macbeth, which is bound to flow from such an unnatural state of affairs. Consider Lady Macbeth’s pathos, reflected in her sleep-walking speeches, “out, damned spot”.
In the play "Macbeth" by Shakespeare, the author explores the many forms of evil and in particular whether evil is from within or is brought to the surface due to the environment in which people live in. For example, Macbeth says "O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife." and this could mean that he was born with evil thoughts and an evil nature, or that someone (the "weird sisters" or witches) has planted them there. The seeds of evil, once planted, appear to be nurtured by Lady Macbeth and by Macbeth himself. It could be that he has damaged himself so that he is unable to feel empathy for others - or that the evil is innate.
(88-89) In his book, On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy, H. S. Wilson explains the stand taken by Macbeth in his relationship with fate: He pits himself no merely against the threat of hell but also against the enmity of "Fate" (as represented in the prophecies of the Weird Sisters): come, Fate, into the list, And champion me to th' utterance. He brags to his wife: But let the frame of tings disjoint, both the worlds suffer, Ere we will eat our meal in fear [. . .]. (70-71) In Everybody's Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies, Maynard Mack explains that the witches are associated with fate: Except in one phrase (I.3.6) and in the stage directions, the play always refers to the witches as weyard - or weyward - sisters.
Evil may have always been present within Macbeth and the witches prophecy or Lady Macbeth’s encourage may just merely be an excuse for his deeds. For example, in Act 1, Scene 4, Macbeth speaks in rhyming couples that insinuates this evil as he internalizes the language of the witches while chanting “ Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires”. On the other hand, Macbeth’s futile attempts to cover up his deeds through darkness and the entrance of Banquo’s ghost has quite an impact on him considering he is the only one who can see it. The sighting of this ghost who arrived to remind him and accuse him of the savage murders, demonstrates Macbeth’s inner feelings of guilt, hence proving he is really a coward than a “butcher”. Also, the sighting of a ghost would be quite striking to an Elizabethan audience, as they were greatly fascinated by anything that had a connection to the supernatural.
Dark versus light is apparent throughout Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Macbeth’s evil darkness intensifies as his light and goodness diminish. The witches are the root of evil, and as Macbeth interacts with them, his journey into the darkness begins. If this evil had never perished, the world would be utter chaos. Lady Macbeth’s darkness cannot completely over take her life because within Lady Macbeth a glimmer of light must always be evident.