Imagery in Macbeth
Shakespeare's powerful imagery has never been more apparent than in Macbeth.
He begins the play with a startling image of three witches chanting in a furious
thunderstorm, "Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Hover through the fog and filthy air"
(1.1.10-11). The eerie chanting creates a dark, mysterious tone that leaves the reader
feeling uncomfortable and expecting odd and evil things to happen. Later, when
Macbeth and Banquo come across the three weird sisters, the underlying evil creeps back
up when Macbeth says, "So foul and fair a day I have not seen," and Banquo comments,
"What are these So withered, and so wild in their attire, That look not like the inhabitants
o' th' earth" (1.3.38-41). Again the tone is one of dark uncertainty. The reader is forced to
pay close attention through the connotations of pure evil, and Shakespeare uses the
opportunity to relay early in the play Macbeth's motivation and other important
information that will determine the character's fate. The act ends by introducing the evil
incarnate character Lady Macbeth, whose ambition is communicated in her soliloquy,
"...unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe, top-full Of direst cruelty!" (1.5.41-
43). Her plan to make her husband king brings the evil, dark, cold tone full circle for the
desired effect of intriguing the reader and kicking the play into high gear. The tone's
effectiveness can be felt in the reader's desire to proceed deeper into the evil thoughts and
developing plots of the drama.
Act II begins the recurring image of Macbeth's struggle with his decision.
His soliloquy in which he says, "Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward
my hand? Come let me clutch thee...A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding
from the heat-oppressed brain?" (2.1.33-34,38-39). He clearly is not comfortable and the
tone is somber and depressing. Lady Macbeth does not seem to share her husband's
anxiety, but it continues to show when he says, "How is't with me that every noise appalls
me?...Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No; this my
hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine" (2.3.57,59-61). The image of him on
his knees agonizing over his actions strikes hard and clear and the tone is one of remorse
and a wishing for a chance to change the past. The act ends with a feeling of uneasiness
as Malcolm and Donalbain leave the country, and Ross and Macduff converse about
the old king's death and...