Macbeth Theme Essay

The Renaissance valued topics of human discovery and expression such as science, philosophy, and the arts. These values carried over into the literature of the time. Stories of mortality were held higher than the religious tales of the past. While some topics were revered, others were feared; magic and witchcraft were often taken as the sign of the devil, so were looked down upon. Shakespeare used supernatural elements to construct an ominous setting into many of his works, and displayed human-based subjects in his more popular plays. Some of the main themes in Shakespeare’s Macbeth are death and illusions. Throughout this play, Macbeth snatches life away from characters prematurely and false visions accompany those deaths; a bloody dagger
In the perspective of the entirety of time, a single human’s lifespan is small and pointless. Life is compared to a ‘walking shadow,’ another name for ghosts; this elaboration is to emphasize the lack of substance and reality in existence. This metaphor is used for
Death and guilt are recurring themes in Macbeth, and this quote summarizes all that Macbeth has learned throughout the play. He knows life is brief and insignificant and has come to terms with that by the fifth act. As in childhood fairytales, there is a moral to this story. Readers are prompted to consider brevity of their lives, to understand the insignificance in ludicrous desires. With so little time to live, extraneous endeavors
As Macbeth contemplated upon life and death throughout the play, he came to conclusion that “life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player.” Shakespeare planted this attitude in his protagonist to express Macbeth’s guilt in taking what little time his victims had to live. This statement also exhibits Macbeth’s fear for the end of his own duration. Displaying the themes of Renaissance literature, Macbeth revolves around mortality and inevitable death. Readers are encouraged to contemplate their own existence and how to use their time on Earth