Atmosphere in the play Macbeth

Atmosphere is to a work of literature what a background is to a painting. Each Shakespearean play has a unique atmosphere which helps to build up the play. The general atmosphere of Macbeth is one of darkness and thick darkness. All the scenes which at once recur to memories take place either at night or in some dark spot. The character traits of the protagonist Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth is painted with frequent shades of black. Nature is foul and the desolate heath, the darkness of the night all contribute to the general effect of darkness.
Darkness, or we may even say blackness broods over this tragedy. The vision of the dagger hanging before Macbeth’s eyes, the regicide, the murder of Banquo, the sleep walking of Lady Macbeth all come in the night scenes. The Withes dance in the thick hair of a storm, or, “black and midnight hags” receive Macbeth in a carven. The faint glimmerings of the western sky at twilight are here menacing: it is the hour when the traveller hastens to reach safely in his inn and when Banquo rides homeward to meet his assassins. It is the hour when ‘light thickens’, when ‘night’s black agents to their prey do rouse’, when the wolf begins to howl and the owl to scream and the withered murder steals forth to his work. Macbeth bids the stars hide their fires so that his “black” desires may be concealed; Lady Macbeth calls on the thick night to come, palled in the dunnest smoke of hell. The moon is down and no stars shine when Banquo , dreading the dreams of the coming night , goes unwillingly to bed, and leaves Macbeth to wait for the summons of the bell. When the next day should dawn, its light is ‘srangled’ and ‘darkness does the face of earth tomb’. The change in Lady Macbeth’s character is marked by her fear of darkness. In one phrase of fear that escapes her lips even in sleep, it is of darkness of the place of torment that she speaks, Hell is murky. The blackness of the atmosphere is persistent and all-enveloping.