What Does Darkness Symbolize In Macbeth

William Shakespeare was a brilliant writer, poet, and playwright. He wrote many plays in the three popular genres of romance, comedy, and tragedy. The tragedies he wrote are amongst some of the most highly acclaimed in the world. In William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, Shakespeare uses symbolism of light and darkness in order to represent life and death and to foreshadow how evil and treacherous behavior only leads to an impending and unavoidable death and destruction.
The first example of symbolism shows how darkness is associated with and representative of secrecy and death. In a monologue by Lady Macbeth about her plans to kill Duncan she says “You wait on nature’s mischief! Come, thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,

Furthermore, he also extends the portrayal of secrecy and confusion with darkness. In a conversation between the three murderers after falling upon Banquo, the third murderer asks “Who did strike out the light?” The first murder responds “Was’t not the way?” (3.3.27-28). As Banquo and his son Fleance are ambushed, Banquo is killed and his light goes out. Subsequently the murderers appear to be quite confused. Amongst the confusion Fleance is able to escape showing that no matter how secretive or subtly something is done a footprint or some amount of evidence is always left behind with the potential to come back and haunt the perpetrator. For example, Macbeth kills King Duncan, but Macduff then finds King Duncan’s body, becomes suspicious of Macbeth in his insanity, and eventually reciprocates the deed by killing Macbeth. Fleance escapes the ambush and as a result Macbeth begins to see hallucinations of the ghost Banquo. Additionally, Macbeth can never be satisfied with any amount of power while knowing that at the same time a true heir is still alive somewhere. The extinguishing of the light symbolizes how death, while not always deserved or expected, can befall on anyone at any given time. Likewise, the dropping of the torch is also symbolic of the loss of a life filled with hope and

After hearing from Seyton that Lady Macbeth has died, Macbeth says “And all our yesterdays have lighted fools / The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!” (5.5.24-25). In these lines Macbeth compares the life of his wife to a brief candle suggesting that people only have so long to live before their flame will inevitably go out. Just as a candle burns away at the wick as time moves forward, so do we age. The fact that Macbeth described it as a “brief” candle reinforces that her life was shorter than typical, and if it had not been for her madness and insanity, she would have lived longer. At this point in the storyline Macbeth is already well on his way down a path similar to that of Lady Macbeth. Actions and behaviors similar to hers trim away at the wax of a figurative candle piece by piece. As the wax is trimmed away the potential burning time of the wick, and ultimately the life of the candle decreases. Lady Macbeth ultimately dies as a consequence of her actions. Lady Macbeth largely contributed in prodding Macbeth down a path not to different from her own, and thus her death and the burning out of the candle foreshadow that his actions and behaviors will lead to a similarly untimely