The portrayal of light and dark in the play 'Macbeth' byWilliam Shakespeare

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The portrayal of light and dark in the play ‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare

        Throughout the play many references are made towards light and dark. These references are mainly symbolic of good and bad, the references are made out to emphasise a situation especially the dark, symbolising bad and evil that contrasts to the light, symbolically representing good.

Immediately in the play there is a strong example off darkness, the witches. In Elizabethan times many so called witches were persecuted and executed. This was done due to an immense fear of witchcraft by the population, witchcraft was a very serious matter and anybody suspected of being a witch was tortures and killed, it was not a laughing matter. This lead to an introduction of witches into Shakespeare’s play, which to an Elizabethan audience would be shocking and terrible leading to a dark eerie presence. This made the play have a bigger impact to start off with, that is why the first scene is of the witches, to get the audiences attention and keep it.

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The setting that the witches are in is a barren moor with thunder and lightening in the dark, this darkness adds to an ever-growing aura of evil. The language accentuates this “hover through fog and filthy air” gives a feeling of dirt and bad, but do not overlook the fact that they may be on about clouding his vision with evil.

Darkness has an extremely big part to play in ‘Macbeth’ both as a play and to the actual main character.

The play is basically about Macbeth, how he moves from strength to strength driven in his success by ...

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