Light and Dark

Light and Dark

1. Shakespeare uses light and dark to represent good & evil

   • Darkness:smt bad, light:good and God
     • Throughout the play, as more murders are takig place, Macs language seems to become darker

2. Macbeth immediatley calls for darkness to cover up his evil thougts, to hide them from others and even from his own eyes

   • "stars hide your fires"
     • Later this darkness will come out, when D's murder is carried out

3. Lmac requests darkness to cover the earth to hide her actions from onlookers and even from herself

   • 'come thick night"
     • she wants light (god) to have no chance of interfering in her actions
   • As the play draws to a close, the gentlewoman's words as she watches LMAC sleepwalking are a contradiction of the above words
     • "she has light by her continually"
       • she thinks that light is going to protect her against the evil forces she summones
         • she wants light (God) to comfort her

4. The requests for complete darkness made by the Macs is given

   • "The moon is down"
     • even the main source of light at night (moon) is behaving strangely
     • "dark night strangles the travelling lamp"
       • ross points out that the sun failed to rise following the murder of the king
         • this alludes the evil and darkness yet to come