Light And Darkness In Macbeth

Shakespeare’s play Macbeth is chock-full of different examples of imagery, many of which reappear throughout the entire play. Three major patterns of imagery include light versus darkness, clothing, and blood. The first example, light and darkness, is the most obvious and recurrent. In Shakespeare’s writing, light is associated with life, God, and acts of kindness, while darkness foretells death and evil. In the first act, Lady Macbeth asks for night to come so that her “keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry, ‘Hold, hold!’” (I.v.55-57). Here she is implying that the only thing that can stop her from murdering Duncan is the protection granted by light, which she is linking to God and heaven. Then, in the next scene, Lennox is describing to Macbeth the horrors he witnessed during the night, one of
The first reference to this is when Ross first announces that Macbeth is now the thane of Cawdor. Macbeth is confused since the current thane is still alive, and asks why he is being dressed “in borrow’d robes” (I.iii.115). Macbeth does not mean the literal clothing of the old thane, but is instead referring to the title, Thane of Cawdor, which he does not believe fits him. In the same scene, Banquo mentions how the “strange garments, cleave not to their mould, But with the aid of use” (I.iii.158-159), using another clothing metaphor to conclude that Macbeth only feels uncomfortable with his new title because he has not had time to get used to it yet. Another example of clothing is used when the Scottish army is marching to meet the English army before Macbeth’s castle, where Angus comments on how Macbeth must now “feel his title Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe Upon a dwarfish thief” (V.ii.23-25). Angus is saying that Macbeth had unrightfully taken the title of king and it is now obvious since the title, or the robe in the metaphor, does not fit him at