Light And Dark Imagery In Macbeth

Alexia Bushi

Mrs. Aurigemma

EN110

3 March, 2023

Macbeth Imagery The idea of light and dark forces have been around the world for quite a long time, establishing a notion of good and bad characters. It can be shown throughout William Shakespeare’s plays, the most notable one being Macbeth. In Shakespeare’s novel Macbeth, Shakespeare employs light and dark imagery to illustrate, during Macbeth’s rise to power and loss of it, that there are both good and evil beings within the world. Dark imagery is used excessively throughout the novel to symbolize and illustrate the forces and ideals of evil. One of the more well known beings of evil within Macbeth are the witches, also known as the Weird Sisters, who Macbeth goes to to learn small pieces

Light, for many, usually symbolizes good fortune, truth, and pureness. At the very start of the story, in Act 1, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were both planning on murdering Duncan to gain possession of his throne. During their planning of this event, Lady Macbeth exclaims “Oh, never / Shall sun that morrow see!” before sending Macbeth off to do the deed (1.5.59-60). Dark imagery is shown in this statement, however it focuses more on the idea of light. The King will be killed in the night, never waking to see the light of the next day. The night is meant to hide the Macbeths’ sins and prevent Duncan from seeing the truth of what has happened. “Shall sun that morrow see” can be interpreted as the King who will never know who murdered him in the morning when he would have woken. The light is meant to shine on the truth, and it reveals all things hidden. Later on, after Lady Macbeth plans the murder of Duncan in the first scene, she slowly becomes consumed and overwhelmed by the guilt of what she has done, unlike Macbeth. She begins to sleepwalk and talk about her regrets about the evil she has committed. Two witnesses of her sleepwalking, while holding a candle and repeatedly washing her hands, were the doctor and gentlewoman. The doctor asks the gentlewoman why Lady Macbeth is holding a candle by her side throughout her episode, and the gentlewoman explains “it stood by her she has light by / her continually. ‘Tis her common’” (5.1.24-25). Lady Macbeth has become so consumed by guilt that she desperately wants light by her side. The light is meant to keep her safe, along with sustaining her guilt of planning Duncan’s murder. She does not want to face the evil things she has done, so she uses the pureness of the light to help her get by. The light imagery is used throughout this novel to signify the pure and truthful nature of human