macbeth distrubing imagery
2013 - “Shakespeare makes effective use of disturbing imagery in the play, Macbeth.”
Discuss this statement, supporting your answer with suitable reference to the text.
Shakespeare makes very effective use of disturbing imagery in ‘Macbeth’ to convey a world in which evil is palpable and omnipresent. The imagery in Macbeth highlights and reinforces key themes in the play. It also helps to create the distinctive atmosphere of the play. Though disturbing imagery is widespread throughout Macbeth, I feel it is most dominant in images of false appearance, clothing imagery, sleep imagery, nature imagery and blood imagery.
The imagery of false appearance which emphasis deception in the play. The opening scene announces it. The witches cry out ‘fair is foul and foul is fair’. Nothing can be trusted in other words. It is a warning to the audience of the fact that characters in the play will be deceived in one way or another. It points out what will happen to Macbeth. The contrast between appearance and reality is apparent throughout the play. Lady Macbeth advises her husband to ‘look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t. Be a hyprocrite in order to succeed, she states. The demonic image of the serpent underlines the element of deception in what she says. Immediately after the murder, Donalbain reflects on the falseness behing Duncan’s murder: ‘There’s daggers in men’s smiles.’ Macbeth’s kingship is based on deception and hypocrisy. Speaking with the murders who are going to kill Banquo, Macbeth underlines the need for secrecy: ‘masking the business from the common eye for sundry weighty reasons.’ Prior to the banquet, Macbeth tells his wife that they must hide their troubled hearts: ‘and make our faces vizards to our hearts, disguising what they are’. During the banquet scene Macbeth inadvertently reveals his true character to the world and susbenquently uses fewer images of disguse. He dispenses entirely with the mask when he decides to avenge himself
Discuss this statement, supporting your answer with suitable reference to the text.
Shakespeare makes very effective use of disturbing imagery in ‘Macbeth’ to convey a world in which evil is palpable and omnipresent. The imagery in Macbeth highlights and reinforces key themes in the play. It also helps to create the distinctive atmosphere of the play. Though disturbing imagery is widespread throughout Macbeth, I feel it is most dominant in images of false appearance, clothing imagery, sleep imagery, nature imagery and blood imagery.
The imagery of false appearance which emphasis deception in the play. The opening scene announces it. The witches cry out ‘fair is foul and foul is fair’. Nothing can be trusted in other words. It is a warning to the audience of the fact that characters in the play will be deceived in one way or another. It points out what will happen to Macbeth. The contrast between appearance and reality is apparent throughout the play. Lady Macbeth advises her husband to ‘look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t. Be a hyprocrite in order to succeed, she states. The demonic image of the serpent underlines the element of deception in what she says. Immediately after the murder, Donalbain reflects on the falseness behing Duncan’s murder: ‘There’s daggers in men’s smiles.’ Macbeth’s kingship is based on deception and hypocrisy. Speaking with the murders who are going to kill Banquo, Macbeth underlines the need for secrecy: ‘masking the business from the common eye for sundry weighty reasons.’ Prior to the banquet, Macbeth tells his wife that they must hide their troubled hearts: ‘and make our faces vizards to our hearts, disguising what they are’. During the banquet scene Macbeth inadvertently reveals his true character to the world and susbenquently uses fewer images of disguse. He dispenses entirely with the mask when he decides to avenge himself