Darkness And Darkness In Macbeth Essay

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Murder in the Dark-Tracing a Word in Macbeth Light is associated with peace, harmony, and hope, while darkness is often linked with despair, death, and fear. Due to these evil and menacing connotations, darkness is a theme that is prevalent in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, where the main character, Macbeth, commits a string of murders alongside his wife, Lady Macbeth, in his prophesied rise to power as King of Scotland. Throughout the play, Shakespeare repeatedly uses the words darkness and dark in characterizing the witches, Lady Macbeth, and Macbeth as evil and murderous in order to suggest that ambition with ill-intent leads to destruction and disorder of the natural world. After Macbeth’s first meeting with the witches, his close friend, Banquo, is wary of their prophecies, and observes that “oftentimes, to win [them] to …show more content…
Banquo calls the witches instruments, or forces, of darkness and evil that desire to lure unassuming innocents to danger through deceit, characterizing the witches as eerie, but powerful supernatural beings that wish to inflict harm upon others. Through this description of the witches, Shakespeare effectively suggests that malicious ambition or desire is dangerous and disrupts normal natural order. Later, as Lady Macbeth plots to kill King Duncan in order to expedite Macbeth’s ascent to Scotland’s throne, she implores evil spirits to make the night thick and black so that “heaven” cannot “peep through the blanket of the dark,/ To cry 'Hold, hold!’” (1.5.60-61) when King Duncan is murdered. Shakespeare compares the image of smothering the kingdom like a heavy blanket to an unnaturally dark night that conceals Lady Macbeth’s violent ambition-fuelled deed and suffocates the people within, effectively conveying his message that desire can cause destruction and unrest. Finally, after the murder of King Duncan, a man named Ross comments on the abnormal way that “dark night strangles the

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