The images of darkness and disease in Macbeth

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Darkness & Disease In Macbeth

The images of darkness and disease in Macbeth are very important in creating the atmosphere and mood of the play.  Shakespeare uses verbal imagery as well as the physical images acted out in the play to affect the audience; these effects were enhanced by the fact that Macbeth was first performed in front of a small audience and lighting would have been provided by candlelight.  Threatening darkness seems to envelop Macbeth who appears oppressed by fear and danger and obsessed with thoughts of Duncan’s death.  Macbeth combats his fears with thoughts of more violence.  The imagery of dark and light relates to the metaphorical fight between good and evil.  Macbeth symbolizes a disease affecting Scotland.

 

Throughout the play, the use of imagery connected with darkness and disease help to create the atmosphere of surrounding evil:

Come seeling night,

Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day,

And with thy bloody and invisible hand

Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond

Lines such as these, as much as the appearance of the witches and the terrible acts committed, give the play its increasing sense of a world besieged by appalling injustice.  These lines also appeal to our sense of sight i.e. “Scarf up the tender eye…” and, “Light thickens”.  They make you think of light thickening and night cancelling out the light.  Night’s black agents could refer to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.  “Light thickens, and the crow / Makes wing to the rooky wood” brings more thoughts of darkness into the play, because crows and rooks are dark and sometimes associated with evil beings.

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The most important scenes in Macbeth occur in darkness e.g. the murder of Duncan, Banquo, the visit to the witches etc.  These scenes show that Macbeth is a dark play; it is also shown by the repeated images of darkness and night.   Nearly all of the characters mention darkness at some point in the play, when Lady Macbeth considers murdering Duncan (Act 1, Scene 5) she says, “Come, thick night…” she means that she wants the night to cover up the evil deeds, and Banquo, shortly before Duncan's murder (Act 2, Scene 1), says, “There’s husbandry in heaven ...

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