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Bird Motif In Macbeth

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“A motif is an image, sound, action or other figure that has a symbolic significance and contributes toward the development of theme.” In Macbeth, Shakespeare used the birds to help produce the theme or mood of certain scenes. Because Shakespeare used different birds throughout the play, each bird had a unique role in its scene. Shakespeare first made use of the bird motif when the captain said “As sparrows eagles,” (Macbeth, Act I Scene 2). The captain compared Macbeth and Banquo’s fear of the previous events to the fear of an eagle when it sees a sparrow. “Sparrows are small, plump, brown-grey birds with short tails and stubby, powerful beaks”, while “eagles are large, powerfully built birds of prey, with heavy heads and beaks”. Macdonwald, the sparrow, has a “powerful beak”, which means in a singular way he is strong, but Macbeth and Banquo, the eagles, are strong overall; it would be ridiculous for Macbeth and Banquo to fear Macdonwald when they posses so much valor. Also, because the tone in which the captain was saying this line was rather sarcastic, it further proved that the captain was trying to explain how absurd it would be to think that Macbeth and Banquo feared Macdonwald and his troops. …show more content…

When an owl shrieks, it is “considered an omen of death”. Shakespeare chose the owl for this scene in order to support the action Macbeth had previously performed, which was killing Duncan. The owl is also mentioned in Act II Scene 3. Lennox said, “Now hatched to th’ woeful time: the obscure bird clamored the livelong night.”. The obscure bird mentioned is relative to a bird that stays in darkness, in this case the owl. Lennox described how unruly the night was, including the loud screams of the owl. The owl shrieking, as said before, is an omen of death. The consecutive mention of the owl helped conclude that the death of Duncan really did happen and that it caused nature to become chaotic and

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