Shakespeare’s objective is to show how the guilt Is driving her insane. Shakespeare also does this with the semantic field of death; “death and blood” are used through her sleep-walk. This implies that her guilt of killing Duncan is driving her insane this technique is used by Shakespeare to portray Lady Macbeth’s broken state of mind which makes her restless. In Act 2 Scene 2, the witches say "Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep,” this is exactly what has happened to Lady Macbeth as she is unable to sleep.
In the play Macbeth, the main theme is the corruption of power through unchecked ambition. Macbeth is a faithful soldier and a good man, until three witches tell him of his future. Upon telling his wife the grand news, she devises a scheme where Macbeth kills the king in order to make his future the present. Macbeth is wary at first, and often talks of his guilt and soul before the murder, but, in order to please his wife, and feed his desire to become king, he murders the poor king in his sleep. He then blames two guards for the deed and becomes king of Scotland.
Hawthorne describes Pearl as “demon” child. This is ironic because Dimmesdale is considered the devil. In the novel, Hawthorne depicts Hester as a mother who only feels safe and comfortable when her own daughter is asleep. The moment when Chillingworth discovers the mark on Dimmesdale’s chest is considered irony of situation. This moment is ironic because some of the townspeople seem to compare the mark with Hester’s scarlet
This also gives the audience the impression that she is almost turning into a witch herself and this might have please and interested the audience as people of the 17th century believed in witchcraft. Lady Macbeth knows that she will have to urge her husband on to become king, and so she calls for evil spirits to help her: “come you spirits...unsex me here” this phrase also shows us how she is willing to give up all the gentle qualities of a woman and let the devil possess her body and soul. She also then calls upon the night shrouded in “the dunnest smoke of hell” to hide her murdering dagger from the sight of heaven and so go forth with the terrible deed. The audience would be taken back here as the soliloquy reveals her sinister and malevolent character. Shakespeare uses a lot of disturbing words in Lady Macbeth’s speech such as: ‘Fatal’, ‘Mortal’ , ‘Gall’ and ‘Knife’.
Ruthlessly accusing others of witchcraft she changes her story as a desperate act of self-preservation, “I danced with the devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss his hand. I saw Sarah Good with the devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the devil!” Abigail develops a chant of names, becoming ‘enraptured, as though in a pearly light’ demonstrating her lust for power and attention. As early as Scene one, we learn of the motives behind Abigail’s actions as she tries to get the girls to agree on a story to protect herself.
Once Tituba confessed to witchcraft, Abigail joined in by accusing others of witchcraft so the negative attention would not be on the girls. Once Abigail started accusing people, Betty woke up from her “infinite” sleep and joined in along with the other girls. When the trials began, it was Abigail who kept the charade going by pretending that the accused were casting their spirits upon her and the other girls in the court room. Abigail led the girls by crying out in pain, pretending to see things and shivering. When the affair with John Proctor almost came up, Abigail was quick to turn on whoever went against
A central motif in Macbeth is the darkness brought on by night and how it conceals and reveals aspects of the characters personalities. In one example, Lady Macbeth reveals herself while lamenting over the future murder of Duncan. She calls for the “thick night” to cover her regrets so they won’t even be hinted to God. Since she believes she is completely invisible, Lady Macbeth is able to ask for the ability to be filled with the “direst cruelty.” Throughout the play, Lady Macbeth has to face the battle between her own ambitions and the constraints placed upon her as a woman and that of the wife of Macbeth. She uses her womanhood to portray her innocence but it is then exposed by her soliloquy that she wishes the spirits “unsex” her, leaving Lady Macbeth only with mortal thoughts.
Throughout the years, witchcraft has been the common fear of mankind. In England, the legal definition of a witch was “a person who hath a conference with the devil to consult with him or to do some act”. In early modern Europe, women were thought to be witches due to their biblical association with the devil, the superstitions and misunderstanding of the people of Europe, and the negative perceptions of those who deviated from the social norm. As a result, these beliefs and superstitions led to the death of thousands of alleged witches. (Witch Hunts) Witches were thought to be consults of the devil who gave up their bodies and led others away from the church for the devil in exchange for otherworldly power.
Another prophecy made by the witches was that Banquo's son will be king. Fuelled by paranoia, lack of sleep andvisions, Macbeth was thrown into a state of confusion and a belief that the prophecies were inevitable. Lady Macbeth urged her husband to commit murder and it was this action that sparked Macbeth's downfall. When Lady Macbeth heard about the prophecies made by the witches, and how one of them had already come true, she called upon evil spirits to guide her through her task - killing the king. ."..
Hysteria in Salem In 1692, in Salem Massachusetts, the superstition of witches existed in a society of strong Christian beliefs. Anybody who acted out of the ordinary was accused of being a witch and the accused would actually be forgiven if they blamed their accusations on another individual. In this play, a group of young girls is accused of being witches. These girls then blame other people in order to get out of trouble and even pretend to be "bewitched" in front of the court during a trial. This leads into the deaths of the innocent people who are accused and automatically found guilty.