The use of pathetic fallacy shows the audience how intense darkness is. I realise that darkness is a way in which Macbeth hides the truth. By using darkness in various fields in this play, the audience become confused whether or not Macbeth is in fact an evil person by nature or is a victim of temptation by evil and darkness. Another use of pathetic fallacy to describe darkness is in Act 2, Scene 4. After the murder of Duncan, Ross and the Old Man are talking, the Old Man says “by th’ clock ‘tis day, and yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp”. The use of pathetic fallacy here is obvious: the darkness strangling the light of day is a manifestation of Duncan’s murder; the light of nature is suffocated just as Duncan’s life was extinguished.
I have noticed that whenever the witches are around it is obviously dark. This fact can be proven in Act 4, Scene 1 when Macbeth calls them “black and midnight hags”. In this quote, two points prove to the audience that the witches only appear in the dark: ‘black’ and ‘midnight’. ‘Black’ is absence of white which lacks purity. ‘Midnight’ is the traditional symbol of evil and superstition and is also the absence of day, thus resulting in it having the lack of white and therefore, the absence of good.
Therefore, we can see that light is a symbol of truth, openness and goodness, whereas darkness is a symbol of evil, fear, suspense and terror. When you put out someone’s light, you are killing them and so, when Macbeth kills Duncan, we realise that he did in fact put out Duncan’s light because there is no more light from Duncan left, but in fact darkness has crept in. After performing the “deed” in the end of Act 2, Scene 2, Lady Macbeth reassures her husband that everything will be okay. When Macbeth is horrified at the sight of blood on his hands, Lady Macbeth tells him that her “hands are of [his] colour, but [she] shames to wear a heart so white”. This is a very strong point that I came across because Lady Macbeth, in her own words describes how if she had a “heart so white” it would mean that she feels guilty and is innocent. The fact that white represents light and so represents purity and goodness shows me that Lady Macbeth does not have an ounce of goodness in herself and that she would rather have a black and dark heart than a white and pure one.
When the murderers are killing Banquo, they ask “who put out the light?”, as I can see, this is very ironic. We all knew that Banquo was a good man. We’ve established that light represents goodness and hence, before Banquo is killed, the “light” is still “on”, when he is murdered, the “light goes out”. This shows that in Act 3, Scene 3, the “light” that the murderers were talking about can either mean the light from the torch or the light of goodness coming from Banquo.
I think that darkness also represents difference between appearance and reality. It shows that nothing is clear to Macbeth because of how dark he has become. At the banquet when Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost, he calls it a “horrible shadow” though it isn’t even real. This proves that darkness (the shadow in this case) represents something which Macbeth doesn’t even know if it is real or a hallucination. When Macbeth asks for the darkness to not show his “dark and deep desires” he is asking for his real identity to be covered up and hence he is asking for darkness, which obviously makes him evil. Another occasion in which Macbeth asks for the lack of light is in Act 5, Scene 5 when Macbeth is reflecting on the significance of life and orders the “candle” to “go out”. This clearly shows us that even Macbeth knows that light represents life and when it is “out” there is no more life.
The most important aspect we’ve established is that darkness represents evil. I can prove this from various quotes in the play. In Act 2, Scene 1, when Macbeth is getting ready to kill Duncan, he mentions evil moving “with Tarquin’s ravishing strides”. At first glance, this may not mean much to someone who hears this because they know that Tarquin was the son of a king of Rome who had raped his hostess. However, after remembering the story of Tarquin, the audience may come to realise, like I did that Tarquin in fact raped his hostess at midnight! Again, here is proof that darkness is actually symbolising evil and corruption.
Other examples of this is when Lady Macbeth awaits her husband’s return from killing Duncan that she mentions that “fatal bellman”. Again, like the example earlier, this quote may not mean much at first glance. It is true that the “fatal bellman” was a man who was paid to ring a bell outside a prison before an execution; however, again, he actually used to do this at midnight. Here we see again that not only does darkness (in this case midnight) represent evil, but death also.
In Act 3, Scene 2, when Macbeth speaks to Lady Macbeth about deciding to extinguish Banquo’s and Fleance’s lives, he mentions that he will in fact be able to get rid off them by summoning “black Hecate”. Here, it is clear to see that since black resembles darkness and Hecate is evil, then in fact darkness and evil must be connected together.
There are times in Macbeth when the source of evil, the Devil is linked to darkness. In Act 4, Scene 3, Malcolm mentions that “angels are bright still, though the brightest fell”. Knowing the story of how Satan was actually an angel, you can see that even the best of people (or Satan in this case when he was an angel) who are so bright because of their piouseness reach their end. Also, another example is in Act 5, Scene 3 when Macbeth tells the servant that the “devil damn [him] black”. Referring to the devil as being black proves to us that darkness represents wickedness because nothing and no one can be more vicious than the devil.
As we saw earlier when Lady Macbeth asked for the “thick night” to cover itself up in the “dunnest smoke of hell” so as their evil deeds cannot be seen, she obviously needed darkness because it would hide the truth of what she was doing. However, in Act 5, Scene 1, when she goes mad with guilt at what she has done, the doctor informs the audience that she “has light by her continually, ‘tis her command”. This is clearly ironic because though she called for darkness earlier, she is now in need of light. This clearly proves the point that I have been making all along: darkness allows you to be evil and light gives you comfort and make things seem clearer and look better. Light is the presence of good and God, whereas evil allows corruption and hatred to creep in.
I think that not only was Shakespeare trying to get us to realise what darkness really symbolises, but to also allow it to have an effect on us. Clearly, we, being the audience are able to see that since most of the actions in Macbeth take place in the dark, we are able to feel that evil is approaching. Hence, when the audience notes that the scene is taking place in the dark, this affects them because they are able to sense the evil that’s approaching. Therefore, darkness affects the audience immensely because the audience are able to distinguish the fact that the actions taking place in front of them are in fact wicked. Also, since most of the actions take place in the dark, the audience get a sense of the change in the mood and atmosphere of the whole play and again, they are able to feel the evil coming up.
In conclusion, I think that most of the actions in Macbeth take place in the dark because darkness represents evil, suspicion, superstition, terror, fear and death; this helps the audience distinguish these facts when watching the play. Therefore, being a tragedy as it is, in Macbeth nearly all the events take place in the dark and are connected to darkness because the play shows the rise and fall of a once shinning hero who became tempted by evil and became a “black” and “devilish” corruptor.