Heaven to certain people means different things, for some it means where one goes in the afterlife and for others it is just general goodness in life or death. Throughout Macbeth Shakespeare uses heaven the same way, but with a variety of different meanings and. In Macbeth, heaven means the afterlife and also an almighty, all knowing power. Heaven is first used to show how fearless Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are towards the afterlife despite all the murders and bad decisions they make. Towards the end of the play it is used to show the fear they should have because heaven knows everything that they have done and will show no mercy once they are dead. The first time the word heaven is used it is by Lady Macbeth when she learns that the witches …show more content…
While Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking in act five, the woman watching her says “She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that: heaven knows what she has known.”(5.1.42-43) Heaven knows about all the murders that the Macbeths have orchestrated, yet most of the people around them do not. Although both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have already made it clear they do not care what happens to them in the afterlife, this shows how in the afterlife they will be greatly judged for the things that they have done on earth. They should fear what the afterlife has in store for them since they did not fear the afterlife while they made decisions that greatly altered their fate. Although throughout the play the usage of the word heaven does not change, the meanings slightly differ between the usages. Shakespeare utilizes the word heaven well to show both afterlife and and almighty power that go hand in hand in deciding a person’s fate once they have died. Overall the word heaven in the beginning is used to show the fearlessness of both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, but in the end it shows how everyone knows what they have done and how they will be greatly judged in the afterlife for what they have done, yet in both parts it is used in the same