Imagery In Macbeth Essay Research Paper William

“It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman, which gives the stern’st good-night.” In Act 2, scene 2, The step that Macbeth is taking goes against the rules of nature, and when this happens, animals and weather erupt. The owl is a bellman because, according to superstition, an owl hooting foretells death. He is fatal, because he death and horror. So,when the owls screamed and the crickets cried, it symbolized evil and ominous doings. In Act 2, scene 4, Ross and an old man are talking about the night before and how many unnatural things happened. The bird of darkness, the owl, screeched all night. “A falcon, tow’ring in her pride of place, was by a mousing owl, whose normal prey is a mouse. The night has become more powerful than the day or else the day is hiding its face in shame”. Duncan s horses, went crazy and broke their stalls, and were said to have eaten each other. “The raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements.” In Act I, scene 5, Macbeth has already thought about the assassination. The raven, like the owl is a symbol of death. The raven represents Duncan’s doom. An

atmosphere of death is symbolized by the behavior of the animals that night. The animals are all going crazy and doing things that are not natural, just like Macbeth is doing. Macbeth killing people isn t natural.

The last type of imagery is blood, it is very important in ‘Macbeth’. It symbolizes honor and bravery and also deceit and evil. In the beginning blood stands for honor and bravery and symbolizes good and victory. The blood on Macbeth’s sword after the war shows him to be a hero because he killed his enemy. The blood at the beginning of the play earns Macbeth respect and a title. Macbeth is feeling very guilty about the murder of Duncan and Banquo. ” With all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas in carnadine, making the green one red” shows that he feels great guilt. What Macbeth means is that with all of the water in the ocean could not wash his hands clean from what he has just done. If he where to try and wash his hands in the ocean it would turn it red because there is so much blood on his hands. Blood represents a lot of guilt for Lady Macbeth, too, especially near the end of the play. Lady Macbeth is the one who tries to keep Macbeth’s hopes up and keep him from breaking down. She acts okay until the end, when she sleep walks and constantly washes her hands, she says, “What, will these hands never be clean here’s the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia could not sweeten this little hand”. Again, showing the imagery of blood used as guilt. The imagery of blood is used in two different ways. One of good and the other of evil. In the beginning of the play blood is shown as honor and bravery and at the end it is shown as guilt and bad.