The Importance Of Night In Macbeth

In the play Macbeth written by Shakespeare the word night appears multiple times and it plays a big role in the play. For Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both the word night seems to portray a feeling of darkness and evil. In the most prominent scenes where night is used the person isn’t referring to the night itself, but rather the idea of darkness that comes along with night. In every act of the play the word is mentioned at least twice and has at least one moment which the word is used in a powerful context. The first act featured the introduction to the story and the characters. We find Macbeth and Banquo talking to the weird sisters, who give them a prophecy. This sets up the rest of the story, as it is what pushes Macbeth to what he does later. Soon the predictions start coming true and Macbeth writes to Lady Macbeth about the news. This leads to Lady Macbeth saying how they must kill duncan in order for Macbeth to become the new king. At this time she has her own talk and prayer by herself wishing that she would be able to go through with the deed without the heavens knowing and punishing her. “Come, thick night, and pall thee the dunnest smoke of hell, that my keen knife see not the

Just before the army approaches Macbeth is talking to Seyton, and says, “I have almost forgot the taste of fears. The time has been my senses would have cooled to hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir as life were in ‘t, I have supped full with horrors. Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, cannot once start me.” (V. v 11-17). In this he is saying “I forgot what fear is like. There was a time where I would have been scared easily, but now I’ve seen true horrors. What I was scared of before is now simple in comparison”. The word night is again used in a way that shows an evil more sinister reasoning for