Shakespeare uses irony to make the emergence of Banquo’s ghost very dramatic and provides for an extremely suspenseful scene, when the tension rises as Macbeth suffers a breakdown and crumbles in front of many of his distinguished guests, only heightening any previous suspicions they may have had. The appearance of his deceased friend shows the level Macbeth’s mind has receded to and the power the dark forces have over his morality. Macbeth is craving to know more about the Fates’ prophecies and he receives false comfort in the three Apparitions the weird sisters conjure up during Act 4 Scene 1, where he is led to believe that he will not be vanquished.
“For none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth.”
“Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until
Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane Hill
Shall come against him.”
But like all their words, these new symbols are deceptive and not what they first seem and again Macbeth can only see the apparent meanings of the witches’ prognosis. The first ‘ an armed head,’ represents Macbeth’s own head, the second is a ‘bloody child,’ that is the image of Macduff who ironically had been ‘untimely ripp’d’ from his mother’s womb (as he tells Macbeth in Act 5); and the last is a royal child with a small tree in his hand, this is Malcolm, the rightful king of Scotland who approaches the palace at Dunsinane camouflaged with tree-branches from Birnam wood.
Shakespeare uses the supernatural forces to show how they can rob characters of their humanity and is an insightful picture into their tortured minds. A good example of this is Lady Macbeth and how her strong character wavers and is eventually broken by her feelings of guilt and remorse. She is linked to the darkness from the beginning of the play, when in Act1 Scene 5 she calls up the evil spirits to discard her natural womanliness and fill her instead with the worst feelings of bitterness, wickedness and cruelty. It is also quite interesting to see that Shakespeare uses the word ‘tend’, which would have enhanced the belief of an Elizabethan audience that these dark and deceitful forces had the power to look inside a mortal’s thoughts and reek havoc by dominating their emotions or common sense.
“Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here
And fill me from the crown to the toe topfull
Of direst cruelty; make thick my blood,
Stop up th’access and passage to remorse.”
She does not want any natural feelings of regret or conscience to get in the way of what she intends.Like Macbeth she asks the powers of darkness to hide her thoughts so that not even the forces of heaven can see through the ‘blanket of the dark.’ This is a nice subtle image of cloaking or hiding something from unwanted eyes, so that its true nature is concealed.
This is also linked to ‘clothing’, another strand of imagery, which weaves throughout the play and is particularly tailored to the rise and fall of Macbeth and the monarchy. A crucial point that Shakespeare makes is that Macbeth is constantly represented symbolically as the wearer of robes not belonging to him. He is wearing an undeserved dignity and the description of the purpose of clothing in Macbeth is the fact that these garments are not his and do not fit as he is not worthy. Therefore, Macbeth is uncomfortable in them because he is continually conscious of the fact that they do not belong to him. In Act 1 Scene 3, when the first of the witches’ prophecies has indeed come true the idea is a shock at first and Macbeth relates this news to stolen clothes.
“Why do you dress me
In borrow’d robes?”
The image then constantly reoccurs and it seems that Macbeth's new honours sit untidily upon him, like loose and badly fitting garments that belonging to someone else.
"New honours come upon him,
Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould,
But with the aid of use."
Banquo again points out that Macbeth’s new title of the Thane of Cawdor, feels incongruous at the moment but will feel more comfortable after the wear of them. He talks about Macbeth being ‘rapt in thought’, a pun intending to mean the same as being ‘wrapped’ or ‘enveloped in’.
Macbeth is indeed in deep thought and at the thought of Lady Macbeth’s plan tells her he will not murder Duncan. In his change of heart, he says the King has bestowed upon him ‘new honours’ and he wants to ‘wear’ these new titles and be ‘dressed’ in the good opinions of other people. Lady Macbeth uses her feminine persuasiveness and sturdy courage to turn Macbeth around again. After the night of the deed, Macbeth is mortified by what he has committed and reels off his encounter with the two grooms in the chamber. He becomes very disturbed at the fact that he could not pronounce ‘Amen’ when one of the sleepy guards cried ‘God bless us!’ and that in the distance he thought a voice cried ‘Sleep no more; Macbeth does murder sleep’. In this passage, Shakespeare links the natural innocent process of sleep to knitting up a frayed garment or sleeve, with the image of Macbeth ripping or tearing this apart with this foul deed.
“Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care,”
Materials also play a part in some of the imagery, usually associated with sleep; such as curtains or drapes, as they paint a picture of flowing soft ‘downy’ fabrics or tapestries.
Lady Macbeth is ashamed of her husband’s faltering courage, when she compares his lack of nerve and determination to the act of wearing something as if it were unfashionable.
“My hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white.”
The deed is done and the whole house awake to find their monarch murdered, a scene in which Lady Macbeth puts her acting skills in practice and pretends to be horrified, (mainly at the fact that this atrocious crime has happened in her home). But Macbeth’s reaction is very heartfelt and maybe even a little revealing. His description of Duncan seems to portray the King in a rich luxurious garment and makes the crime look almost sacrilegious.
“Here lay Duncan,
His silver skin lac’d with his golden blood ”
The image is of weaving or sewing, and the word ‘laced’ seems to depict something so innocent and delicate. The colours are not only royal but slightly heavenly or angelic, which makes the murder seem all the more vicious and unjust.
Macbeth’s plan is in motion and he hurriedly travels to Scone, to be crowned. Duncan’s two sons; Malcolm and Donaldbain have fled to England and Ireland to escape ridicule after being suspected of the murder of their father. In Act 2 Scene 4, Macduff relates to the recent dark days and says he hopes that the country’s ‘old robes’ do not turn out to ‘sit easier’ than ‘the new’ (the new reign of King Macbeth).
The roles as do the new vestments of Kingship do not fit Macbeth, as he is not worthy of them, because he has robbed the rightful King of his and his throne. He has left his natural garments of armour; the clothing of a loyal soldier and his proper position, with disastrous consequences as an imminent battle approaches towards the end of Act 5 Scene 6.
The truth about his murderous ambition and blood lust is out among the people of Scotland and a thane points out how unworthy Macbeth is to be King.
“Now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.”
Shakespeare uses this particular reference to describe how Macbeth is wearing a title too great for him and that it has been unjustly stolen. The soldiers discuss how the army is the much-needed medicine for the ‘diseased’ (chaotic) country, which is in ruins. Lennox, in Act 5 Scene 2 says the order urgently needs to be ‘purged’ which is referring to the common practise of bloodletting by physicians in Elizabethan times.
Blood is a powerful symbol in many aspects as it can symbolise the line of a dynasty or monarchy, it can be associated with darkness and evil or even injury. But in most respects it represents life; the beginning and end, as without it we could not live. Shakespeare uses the imagery of blood, to represent treason, guilt, murder and death and the destruction of hierarchy. Perhaps the best way to describe how the image of blood transforms and adapts throughout the play, is to follow the character changes in Macbeth. First, he is a brave honoured soldier, but as the play progresses, he becomes associated with death and bloodshed. The first sinister reference to blood is one of esteem, shown in Act 1 Scene 2. This occurs when Duncan sees the injured sergeant and says;
"What bloody man is that?”
This is symbolic of the brave fighter who has been injured in a valiant battle for his kinsmen and country. In the next passage, in which the sergeant says,
"Which smok'd with bloody execution," he is referring to Macbeth's courageousness in which he slaughters many of the Norwegians and covers his sword in the blood of the enemy. In Act 2 Scene2, the symbol of blood now changes to show a form of treachery and treason. Lady Macbeth starts this off when she asks the spirits to congeal her blood.
"Make thick my blood." Lady Macbeth knows that the evidence of blood is a treacherous symbol, and knows it will deflect the guilt from her and Macbeth.
"Smear the sleepy grooms withe blood." and
"If he do bleed, I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal,
For it must seem their guilt."
During Act 5 Scene 1, Lady Macbeth shows the most vivid example of guilt with the use of the imagery of blood, is in the sleepwalking scene. This is where her worried thoughts of Duncan’s murder are said aloud for the entire world to here. The sights and smells of Duncan’s blood torment her mind; as she points out in lines 44-45. Before that her gentlewoman and physician, witness her insane ramblings in which she is envisioning blood dripping from her cursed hands.
"Out damned spot! Out I say! One: two: why then 'tis
time to do't: hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier,
and afeard? What need we fear who knows it when
none can call out power to account? Yet who would
have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?"
All these references in the quotation are to murder and both include direct references to blood, again linking blood to treachery and murder. Yet, this speech represents the fact that she cannot wipe the bloodstains of Duncan’s murder off her hand. It is ironic that she says this, because straight after the murder, when Macbeth was feeling remorseful and is horrified at the sight of his hands, she quickly tells him;
"A little water clears us of this deed."
The water is a pure cleansing image that will not wash a sinful deed from the criminal’s hands.
Act 5 Scene 9, just before the ending of the play, Macbeth has Macduff at his mercy, and lets him go, because of his guilt. His feelings of guilt shine through.
"But get thee back, my soul is too much charg'd
With blood of thine already."
Of which, Macduff replies;
"I have no words,
My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain
Than terms can give thee out."
After the death of Macbeth at the hands of Macduff, the imagery of blood swings back to what it was at the beginning of the play and completes the circle. But, it is the honour of Malcolm this time. The death of the tyrant is an honoured achievement that they congratulate Macduff for and celebrate greatly.
The seamless connections between imagery and symbolism within this play, has lost none of its potency and ability to provide deeper even more philosophical meanings since the day it was written. Many of the strands operate on different levels and challenge the mind to see finer details of the image. This may have been particularly useful to the Shakespearian audience sitting under the shadow of the stage, as key words could strike at places in the mind to conjure up poignant manifestations, which would enable the cheaper seat paying audience to follow along without the aid of actors. It is important in terms of symbols to remember the Christian and Biblical context in which William Shakespeare wrote this play. The many references to heaven and hell, light and dark, nature and unnatural often allude to the great Christian symbols such as the crucifixion as it parallels between the main characters and the relation to Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Christ, as we see Duncan as the innocent even deity like king, who is betrayed by one of his loyal followers.
The reoccurrence of these images throughout the play emphasise Macbeth’s progression into the hands of evil and his overall degradation, but also help to bring out the different feelings within an audience such as horror; at Macbeth’s murder of Duncan, hatred; for the witches and eventually ‘the butcher and his fiend-like queen’. The language in the play enchants modern day audiences because its writer belonged to a literary tradition of poetic drama, where most of the poetry in the script depends more on imagery than prose does. Shakespeare was a poet as well as a playwright.
