In William Shakespeare’s well-known tragedy Macbeth the main protagonist, Macbeth suffers through a dramatic change. He strives to achieve his so-called fate however his accomplishments had a cost. His sanity. Throughout the play, we tag along as Macbeth spirals into a state of madness, mayhem and mortality. Shakespeare shows us this through metaphors, symbolic imagery and foreshadowing. Metaphor is explored through the poisoning of Macbeth’s mind and the use of the scorpion metaphor. Astonishing symbolic imagery is used portrayed to the underlying theme of liquids that flows through the play. It explores the depth of meaning behind Shakespeare’s words and the faceted nature of Macbeth. The literary device of foreshadowing is used to hint to us of Macbeth’s future madness. This is particularly effective in the famous “dagger speech”.
William Shakespeare uses metaphors to display to us that Macbeth is changing and descending into a state of mental degeneration. The metaphor “O full of scorpions is my mind” displays to us that Macbeth is referring to his own mind as an infestation of poisonousness insects. The scorpions poisoning his mind and actions causing him to carry out tasks that he may normally find morally unacceptable. In this scene (act 3 scene 2) Macbeth is trying to tell Lady Macbeth that he cannot enjoy his new royal lifestyle because is mind is restless and unsettled. Just as a scorpion sting may leave a person restless and in pain, so are Macbeth’s thoughts. A scorpion sting causes the victim a large amount of pain, this pain can be connected to the mental pain that causes Macbeth’s slow descent to insanity.
This is further supported by the underlying theme and metaphor of liquid throughout the play. Shakespeare uses the symbolic imagery of liquids throughout. It is everywhere staining the clothes of warriors, marking the hands of those guilty and running through the veins of evil. Through the play, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth make several references to liquid. The liquids are referred to in a way that put the images into your head, these liquids are usually blood, milk and gall. The most common liquid is blood. Blood trickles through as an underlying theme through the play, giving the play life and eventually death. The madness that creeps on Macbeth and the purity of Macbeth’s intentions can be traced gradually through the play by analysing what blood represents. For example at the beginning of the play when discussing Macbeth the captain says “For brave Macbeth—well he deserves that name—Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel, Which smoked with bloody execution”. In this context, the idea of blood is used in a noble and courageous context. As “brave Macbeth” slew the villain with his sword “smoking with bloody execution”. This supports that at the beginning of the play Macbeth had yet to be influenced by any supernatural forces and had pure intentions. As the play progresses blood takes a more ominous turn. Before Macbeth kills Duncan he makes several references to blood, in these references the blood represents his guilt. Before he murders Duncan a wave of guilt washes over him as he sees a dagger “And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood” this and that after he murders Duncan he mourns his innocence by saying that not even the entire ocean will wash his hand of blood but will instead stain red.
1 Comment
Add Yours →This is going very well. It’s highly sophisticated, and your own expressive style makes it vivid to read.
A couple of minor points:
1) It should be more obvious to me than it is, right from your introduction, what question you’re answering. Don’t avoid using (and repeating) the words from the question – as the last thing you want to do in an exam is to make the examiner’s job harder, and part of their job is to establish that you’re answering the question.
2) Let’s leave the question of Macbeth’s insanity up to debate – I’d far rather you spoke of his emotional and spiritual decline, and described his final state as despair. Remember this is something Shakespeare’s audience would have considered to be the ultimate loss (loss of faith) – and they didn’t have our modern ideas about sanity to work with.
Otherwise, going well.
CW