‘Macbeth’ is a play about the universal themes of ambition and greed and the battle between good and evil. How far does the imagery help to illuminate these things?

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‘Macbeth’ is a play about the universal themes of ambition and greed and the battle between good and evil.  How far does the imagery help to illuminate these things?

Shakespeare wrote ‘Macbeth’ at the beginning of the Jacobean period, around 1605.  This was the era in which James the first and sixth of Scotland ruled ruled.  James the first was separated from his Catholic Mother, Mary Queen of Scotts and ultimately Protestants brought up James.  During this time, the Gunpowder Plot took place; this of course was an attempted treason act against against James by a Catholic group, Guy Fawkes included.  So at this time Shakespeare writing a play on treason was highly topical.  People of this time strongly believed in the ‘Divine Right of Kings’, people believed that as well as the death of the king, there is death to natural order.

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Shakespeare borrowed all his stories; they were not original, although the language itself was.  The story of ‘Macbeth’ was actually written by Raphael Holinshed and came from a book, ’The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland’.

Throughout ‘Macbeth’ Shakespeare displays a number of different uses of imagery.  Light and dark are closely linked to good and evil as they depict the mood of the varying situations throughout the play.  In 'Macbeth' darkness symbolizes many things. First, and most important, it stands for the evil and death in the play. The darkness could partially blind out all of the ...

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