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Macbeth: Symbolism

My personal review on the symbolism of this Shakespearean tragedy.

By Mikyah HendersonPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, a short tragedy about a man, Macbeth, encountering three witches and hearing his future that he would become Thane of Cawdor and King. His ambition leads him to commit heinous acts of killing the king and other characters as well. In the end, Macbeth begins to hallucinate along with his wife, Lady Macbeth and is eventually killed by Macduff. In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses visions and hallucinations to express the inner struggle that the characters are feeling for the crimes they've committed and were going to commit.

One imperative vision that happens to Macbeth is the floating bloody dagger, which figuratively represents his murder weapon. Macbeth recites his soliloquy about seeing the dagger, but not being able to physically touch it. Macbeth soon realizes the dagger is not real and acquires the real one to kill Duncan. The was also his first step towards hallucination and madness {“Is this a dagger which I see before me, /The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. /I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. /Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible/To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but/A dagger of the mind, a false creation, /Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? /I see thee yet, in form as palpable/As this which now I draw” 2.1}. Macbeth accepts that his mind is chaotic and full of doubt as he understands that the vision is threating and ominous. His ceaseless conflict has now started to develop and his ambition is causing him to commit a crime that he is doubting himself.

Lady Macbeth’s role in Duncan’s murder, however, was to find certain masculine traits to tempt Macbeth to murder Duncan and even following with the murder herself. As time goes by in the play, her masculine confidence dwindles as she deals with her now tormented conscience which leads her to insanity as well. During the first few acts, Lady Macbeth confirms her role of nobility and respect like Macbeth. She is seen as a loving wife to her husband, but she was very ambitious and determined to see her husband become king. She then concocts a plan for Macbeth to become king by murdering King Duncan.

Soon Lady Macbeth’s thoughts make her appear cold and power hungry, but this was just the beginning for Lady Macbeth. To brace herself for what is about come, she calls out to evil spirits asking for more masculine confidence even if she wanted to be more of a male in order to commit this act of murder. Additionally, Lady Macbeth knows her husband well. She subdued her own conscience to usher Macbeth into committing this heinous deed.

Later on, though, the burden of Lady Macbeth's conscience becomes too great for her mentally and physically. A lady in waiting observes her sleepwalking {“Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two. Why, then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him”5.1} and contacts a doctor. The doctor and lady in waiting see lady Macbeth sleepwalking, and furiously trying to clean her hands of the blood of Duncan and Macduff. This is shown as Lady Macbeth’s condition worsens. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth enticed in the murder of multiple friends in order to gain power, and this is what leads to Macbeth's eventual death.

In the end, their fate coincides with the visions and hallucinations as they both eventually become consumed with guilt.

literature
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Mikyah Henderson

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