Imagery in Macbeth Essay

Imagery in Macbeth

Everyone has been to a play or a movie or some other type of entertainment before. People today have so many different kinds of entertainment so we always have something to do. Now imagine your back in the late 1500s in the time of William Shakespeare with no technology. There were very little forms of entertainment back in these days, so they relied on the theatre. Queen Elizabeth I loved the theatre and was all for it, but King James on the other hand was skeptical. William Shakespeare took it into his hands to make a truly great play to win over the king and to keep the theatre open. The play Macbeth was the result of this; the play included all the things that interested King James including witchcraft and killing. Without the special effects and technology we use today to make our movies so good they had to use a different approach, this approach was imagery. In William Shakespeares Macbeth, imagery is used to show Scotlands, Macbeths and Lady Macbeths falling apart.

Throughout the play, Scotland as a whole keeps on becoming a bad place to live in. in the beginning when Duncan was in power, Scotland was in excellent shape and the people were all happy. Once Macbeth came to power, Scotland began to go downhill and the people did not like Macbeth as King. Imagery is used here to show the downfall of Scotland because the real Scotland is not actually like this. When Macduff goes to Malcom to come back to Scotland to fight against Macbeth he says I think our country sinks beneath the yoke. It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash is added to her wounds (4.3.39-41). The use of imagery here shows what the current state of Scotland while Macbeth is in control. This statement puts a vivid picture in your head by saying the country is bleeding and has a gash even though a country cannot really do this. When you hear these types of words like bloody or gashed you immediately think about something bad and hurt. Then, while Macbeth is talking to the doctor he tells him So Macbeth, repudiating physic for himself, turns to the doctor and says if he could by analysis find Scotlands disease (Spurgeon 113). By saying Scotland has a disease he is showing that he knows that there is a problem with Scotland as a whole but he does not realize he is the real cause of this. Also, by using the word disease creates imagery in the statement because once you hear disease you know it is not good. Imagery is used to show the state of Scotland by creating bad pictures in your head they cannot show.

Imagery is also used in the play to show the falling apart of Macbeth. After Macbeth kills people to become king he starts to lose his mind with fear of people finding out and being killed himself. While Macbeth is talking to the murderer he says But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears (3.4.24-25). Here Macbeth is using imagery to show how he feels about the situation he is in. He is scared that everyone is out to get him and the whole world is against him.