Blackness in Macbeth Essay examples -- Macbeth essays

Blackness in Macbeth The Bard of Avon shows in his tragedy Macbeth an evil couple who face the dark hand of death - as a contribute of criminal deeds. Let us look closely at the growing, enveloping tail of the play as it progresses. In his book, On the Design of Shakespearean disaster, H. S. Wilson identifies the darkness in the play with evil, hell, devils Mr. Kenneth Muir, in his introduction to the play - which does not, by the way, interpret it simply from this point of view - aptly describes the cumulative effect of the imagery The direct contrast between light and darkness suggested by the imagery is part of a general antithesis between good and evil, devils and angels, evil and grace, hell and heaven . . . (67-68) A.C. Bradley in Shakespearean catastrophe comments on the darkness within the play The vision of the dagger, the murder of Duncan, the murder of Banquo, the sleep-walking of Lady Macbeth, all come in night scenes. The Witches dance in the deep air of a sto rm or, black and midnight hags, receive Macbeth in a cavern. The blackness of night is to the hero a thing of fear, even of horror and that which he feels becomes the sum of the play. The faint glimmerings of the western sky at twilight are here menacing it is the hour when the traveller hastens to reach safety in his inn, and when Banquo rides homeward t meet his assassins the hour when light thickens, when nights black agents to their prey do rouse, when the wolf begins to howl, and the owl to scream, and withered murder steals forth to his work. (307) In Macbeth as the Imitation of an Action Francis Fergusson states the come out of the closet of darkness in the action of the play It is the phrase... ...re The Tragedies. A Collectiion of Critical Essays. Alfred Harbage, ed. Englewwod Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964. Knights, L.C. Macbeth. Shakespeare The Tragedies. A Collectiion of Critical Essays. Alfred Harbage, ed. Englewwod Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964. Lam b, Charles. On the Tragedies of Shakespeare. N.p. n.p.. 1811. Rpt in Shakespearean Tragedy. Bratchell, D. F. New York, NY Routledge, 1990. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. http//chemicool.com/Shakespeare/macbeth/full.html, no lin. Warren, Roger. Shakespeare Survey 30. N.p. n.p., 1977. Pp. 177-78. Rpt. in Shakespeare in the Theatre An Anthology of Criticism. Stanley Wells, ed. England Oxford University Press, 2000. Wilson, H. S. On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy. Toronto, Canada University of Toronto Press, 1957.