Macbeth The Blood Imagery example essay topic

William Shakespeare's play Macbeth has a lot to do with imagery. Imagery is created when the author uses figures of speech that help the mind to form forceful or beautiful pictures. Some examples of imagery in Macbeth are darkness, blood, animals, sleep, and many more. Throughout the play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and all the other characters go through good types and bad types of imagery.

The darkness imagery symbolizes evil and death. In darkness only evil deeds can be done. Darkness can partially blind out all of the horrible things that occur in the night. The cover of darkness allows evil to surface and the guilt that is felt by Macbeth and leaves him in a sleepless and dangerous state. He calls upon the night to help him perform the deeds by protecting him from the forces of "good". The dark side of Macbeth is reflected at night where his disordered state does not allow him to distinguish reality from illusion.

Some quotes of the imagery of darkness are in act one, scene four. Macbeth says "Stars, hide your fires, Let not light see my black and deep desires. The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see". This quote means that Macbeth wants the stars to black out so that the light could not see his evil ways.

The eye that has witnessed the evil deed being done is afraid to see what exactly it has done. In act one, scene five, Lady Macbeth says, "Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wounds it makes, Nor Heaven peep through the blanket of the dark To cry 'Hold, Hold!' " Lady Macbeth is saying that she wants the night to come and cover her so that she can commit any evil deed and not be seen. In Macbeth the blood imagery is a big part of the play. Blood becomes a dominant theme. The word blood or different forms of the word is mentioned forty-two different times. Blood imagery is used to express guilt, murder, betrayal, treachery, and evil.

In act two, scene two Lady Macbeth asks the spirits to make her blood thick. She is saying that she wants herself to be insensitive and remorseless for the deeds that she is about to commit. Lady Macbeth says in act five, scene one, "Out damned spot! Out I say!

One: two: why then 'tis time to do't: hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a solider, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it when none can call out power to account? Yet who have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?" Lady Macbeth is remembering when she went to go smear the blood on the soldiers and she had got the blood on her hands. She begins walking in her sleep because her guilty conscience is acting up. She is imagining that she has blood on her hands and she can't get it off.

She washes her hands in her sleep and it doesn't come off. In act two, scene two, Macbeth says, "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red". This quote means that the big Neptune's ocean could not even clean all of the blood that he has on his and Lady Macbeth's hands. That the green water would turn red from all the blood that they have shed. Animal imagery in William Shakespeare's Macbeth was used for three main reasons.

They were to used characterize, to show emotions, and to foreshadow. William Shakespeare uses wilderness, barns, and house animals for the imagery in the play. One quote as said by the captain to Duncan in act one, scene two, .".. As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion".

Which means that an eagle defeats the sparrow or the lion defeats the hare, just as Macbeth and Banque defeat their enemies. In act four, scene three, "What, all my pretty chickens and their dam At one fell swoop?" A quote by Macduff when he was shocked because his family was murdered all at once. Shakespeare uses the chickens because they are vulnerable, helpless, and easily frightened. Act five, scene seven, the quote, "They have tied me to a stake. I cannot fly, But, bear-like, I must fight the course". Macbeth says this quote when he realizes that he is trapped, but he feels that if he fights it to the end that he might come out on top.

Sleep is another example of imagery that William Shakespeare uses in the play Macbeth. Sleep is supposed to give the image of peace in the body, mind, and soul. After Macbeth has murdered Duncan, Macbeth feels he has no right to sleep. His guilty conscience says in act two, scene two, "Sleep no more!

Macbeth does murder sleep". His conscience says that because he has murdered Duncan while he was sleeping which is a time when you are supposed to be innocent and peaceful. William Shakespeare's play Macbeth has several very powerful uses of imagery. He is very clear with his ways of using the imagery in his play. His use of imagery brings Macbeth to life in it's own way. The images that the reader can create give the play an entirely new dimension.