ipl-logo

Macbeth Quotes Analysis

508 Words3 Pages

is dark as opposed to innocent activities in the day.
As the play progresses, Macbeth kills Duncan to ascend the throne, dark imagery is used as Macbeth deals with his actions. Macbeth realizes that he must kill Duncan in order to become King. However, he becomes morally conflicted due to the fact that Duncan had not wronged Macbeth in any way. Shakespeare uses this point in the play to capitalize on the use of light and dark imagery by portraying Macbeth’s concerns about his situation. “Stars hide your fires; let light not see my black and deep desires.” (I.4.57-58) In this quote, Shakespeare personifies the light, moral side of Macbeth as he wishes to conceal his actions to evade further guilt. Shakespeare’s use of the rhetorical device personification communicates Macbeth’s ever-present morals as he is …show more content…

Although Macbeth is apprehensive about the act of murdering Duncan, Lady Macbeth ultimately convinces him to do it. Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth to mark a moral turning point for Macbeth as he goes through with the murder. “Come, thick night/And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,/That my keen knife see no wound it makes/Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark” (I.5.57-59) Through her persuasion Lady Macbeth causes the light inside of Macbeth to fade away as he becomes more evil and dark. This marks a moral turning point for Macbeth as he begins his descent into immorality. Shakespeare uses imagery by referring to darkness as a blanket, covering the immoral and corrupt actions of her and Macbeth. She is calling out to the night to have the darkness cover her malevolent activities. Shakespeare’s use of Lady Macbeth’s fear of the light and heaven witnessing her actions is representative of the fact that they feel guilty about what is going to happen. Shakespeare uses Macbeth’s murder of Duncan as a noticeable turning point in the story. Shakespeare changes the setting of the play to mainly occur

Show More
Related
389 Words | 2 Pages

The murder of King Duncan is a vengeful act driven by Macbeth's desire to seize the throne and secure his position. As the play progresses, Macbeth's paranoia and guilt lead to further acts of violence, driven by a fear of revenge from those he has wronged. Both "Night" and "Macbeth" delve into the themes of violence and revenge, albeit in vastly different contexts. "Night" exposes the horrifying violence of the Holocaust, highlighting the inhumanity of individuals. "

Read More
635 Words | 3 Pages

In Shakespeare’s Elizabethan tragedy, Macbeth, Shakespeare utilizes the motifs of blood and sleep to demonstrate the effects of murder ultimately illustrating the power of guilt. The play begins with the three witches telling Macbeth a prophecy that he will one day become king. With this information, Lady Macbeth plots the murder of Duncan for her husband—who is anxious—to become king. However, they realize there are more people in the way, and they start killing more and more people. Malcolm and Macduff see what’s going on and flee to England to think of a plan to get rid of Macbeth.

Read More
484 Words | 2 Pages

“Let not light see my black and deep desires: The eye that wink at the hand; yet let that be which the eye fears,when it is done, to see” (Shakespeare 1.4 58-60). Macbeth is admitting that he has his own hidden desires and wants to become king because of his own passion and drive. He is trying to justify what he knows he will have to do in order to make himself king. He knows that he has to kill to become king and to keep his throne, and is trying to convince himself that this will all be worth it in the end when he becomes king. Some would argue that Lady Macbeth made him king, but his own desires were truly what fuelled his ambition to do whatever it took to make himself king.

Read More
331 Words | 2 Pages

“Let not light see my black and deep desires” as MacBeth begins to plot the downfall of the late king Duncan. A tragic hero has many flaws some dealing with an insane hubris, greater fate, or even an error in judgement. MacBeth had many flaws in his character, but his biggest hamartia was his arrogant pride as well as his believe in the witches half spoken fate and hidden fears. In Act I during the war with Norway and the Scottish traitors MacBeth was an important character because he ended the war by forcing the Norwegian king into surrendering.

Read More
457 Words | 2 Pages

Macbeth, by Shakespeare, is a story of a great warrior named Macbeth who was told by three witches that he would become king. This prediction makes him think it is justified to kill the current king and once he is king he believes that he is invincible. In Macbeth, many symbols are used such as a dagger that isn’t there, hallucinations of blood, and ghosts to show the overwhelming guilt that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have over the murders to highlight the theme that guilt can drive people to insanity when kept in secret. First of all, Macbeth is alone and has decided that he is going to kill King Duncan. All of a sudden he sees a dagger but can’t feel it and says, “I have thee not, and yet I see thee still” (Shakespeare 2.1.35).

Read More
552 Words | 3 Pages

Unfortunately, when Macbeth is face to face with terrible truth, he becomes overcome with the darkness and loses his true self. When the world turns to evil, values are reversed and in order to stay true to oneself he or she must trust intuition. Any good person can be turned to darkness. When Macbeth is given a prophecy that he “shalt be king hereafter”(1.3.49), he begins to imagine cruel and evil ways of gaining this title.

Read More
505 Words | 3 Pages

Lady Macbeth directs Macbeth to his downfall as she ridicules his masculinity. She embarrasses him and manipulates him into submission. This triggers Macbeth into doing the sin himself and affects a great part of him and slowly leads himself into accepting power through evilness. This influences him to perform evil actions. Quickly, Lady Macbeth withdraws from the sin she is “afraid [we] have awaked, And ’tis not done.

Read More
737 Words | 3 Pages

Lady Macbeth uses words such as “unsex”, “cruelty”, and “battlements” to show how she wants to be less emotional and more ruthless in order to kill the king. She is willing to do anything it takes to get what she wants, being selfish and only focusing on her wants and needs. However, she doesn’t want to take the blame for the crime as shown when she says how she wants the crime to be covered in a “blanket of the dark” so no one, not even herself, can witness it. The effects of her destructive power are shown through her intentional harm of others, her unwillingness to admit her guilt, and her pressuring of her husband to kill Duncan, an act that destroys his mental health. The use of diction throughout this passage to display Lady Macbeth’s destructive power allows the readers to easily see what Lady Macbeth is willing to risk for the throne, including the lives of

Read More
922 Words | 4 Pages

He decides to write to his wife, Lady Macbeth, who holds this dark ambition inside of her. She tells Macbeth that he is a coward and that he must do whatever it takes to become king of Scotland. This dark ambition is first shown in act one scene four when Macbeth says, “This is a step on which I must fall down... which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.” Lady Macbeth plays an enormous part in Macbeth’s mental corruption. After murdering Duncan,

Read More
1337 Words | 6 Pages

This signifies that by the witches telling Macbeth his prophecy in their meeting, and Macbeth therefore killing Duncan, the human world and the natural world were linked to his guilt. They were now associated through the darkness seen in nature, or the witches magical involvement. Some examples of nature revolting due to the unanticipated power shift is that after King Duncan is murdered, nature outside of the castle specifically begins to act “unnatural”. The sky is dark in the middle of the day which represents the way the king's life has been darkened, he has died, and his power taken by Macbeth in a dark manner, murder. When Macbeth’s mind is unnaturally altered because of the witches prophecy, it causes a disruption to the order of all those involved.

Read More
411 Words | 2 Pages

Lady Macbeth begins her soliloquy using a metaphor which denotes the raven to be an omen of evil. This raven, which “croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan / under my battlements” (1.5.36-37) symbolizes to her that it is destined that the king should die under her roof. Taking this as a clear sign, she begins to call on the “spirits / that tend on mortal thoughts” (1.5.37-38) asking them to “unsex me here / and fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full / of direst cruelty” (1.5.38-40). In these words, Lady Macbeth seeks to not only rid herself of feminine weakness, but of the natural human response of guilt that would accompany

Read More
682 Words | 3 Pages

Macbeth is the Shakespearean play that features the triumphant uprise and the inevitable downfall of its main character. In this play, Macbeth’s downfall can be considered to be the loss of his moral integrity and this is achieved by ambition, despite this, Lady Macbeth and the witches work through his ambition, furthering to assist his inevitable ruin. Ambition alone is the most significant factor that led to Macbeth’s downfall. The witches are only able to influence his actions through Macbeth’s pre-existing and the three witches see that Macbeth has ambition and uses it to control his action. Ambition alone is displayed throughout the play to be the most significant cause for Macbeth’s downfall.

Read More
430 Words | 2 Pages

A villain- a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot. Macbeth’s greed for power is what shaped him to be the villain in the play. In Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, despite the good Macbeth had done in the very beginning his actions throughout make him the villain.

Read More
780 Words | 4 Pages

Lady Macbeth is power hungry for the throne and she will do anything to achieve her goal. Her pleasure of having the thought of killing Duncan is revealed. These murderous thoughts that run through her mind shows how desperate she is to acquire power. Although it is the beginning of the play, her dark ambitions sets a dark tone for her character in the play. This coincidentally adds to the assurance of Macbeth’s prophecy which is that Macbeth will become king, but King Duncan is still alive.

Read More
865 Words | 4 Pages

Lady Macbeth uses the light to hide herself from the darkness and evilness that surrounds her as she “she has light by her continually; ‘tis her command” (5.1.20) The same darkness that she used to commit her murders, to hide her conscience that could’ve prevented her from committing the crimes, is now the one she fears, that she needs protecting from. Lady Macbeth knew that her actions and the guilt would be damaging as she told Macbeth, "These deeds must not be thought, after these ways; so, it will make us mad." (2.2.45-6) Light and dark and contrasted to show the decent of their mental health.

Read More

More about Macbeth Quotes Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document