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Use of Imagery in Shakespeare's Macbeth

In: English and Literature

Submitted By vrahneo
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Imagery is an effective tool used by writers to enhance the audience’s experience. This is no exception for the play “Macbeth”, in which Shakespeare spins a web of lies, deceit and treachery as the tragic hero, Macbeth, spurred on by vaulting ambition, overleaps, ultimately leading to his death. Throughout the play, recurrent imageries of clothing, blood and butchery as well as light and darkness are employed, propelling the play to its tragic end. The imagery of blood and butchery is employed when Macbeth is first introduced in the play, gives off the impression of a brave, courageous warrior, who was loyal to his King, and blood carried positive connotations of “valiancy” and other similar virtues, where “his blade smok’d with bloody execution”. However, it becomes clear that Macbeth has darker, more sinister intentions/wants beneath his warrior exterior: his desire to be King, which can be seen through his subscription to the Witches’ prophecy, foretelling that he will be King, and his frequent discussions with Lady Macbeth as they plot to usurp the throne from King Duncan. Blood then becomes a symbol of treachery, such as when Lady Macbeth calls upon the spirits to “make thick my blood” and to carry out the murder with no regrets, and in her plan to frame Duncan’s guards with his murder by “smear[ing] the sleepy grooms with blood”. The meaning of blood further descends into guilt, as we observe Lady Macbeth’s slow descend into madness and her suicide that follows. During one of her sleepwalking incidents prior to her death, Lady Macbeth is seen to be re-enacting the night of King Duncan’s murder of which she was involved in, and utters the famous line “Out damned spot; out, I say...who would have thought that old man to have so much blood in him?” Blood has now come to represent Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s lingering guilt, which sits

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