Visions and Hallucinations: Macbeth sees or hears strange things: the floating dagger, the voice that says he's murdering sleep, and Banquo's ghost. The dagger is covered with blood, which represents the bloody course Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are headed down. Another example of how madness is shown in visions and not sleeping, is when Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking and has a hallucination of blood stains on her hands. Macbeth also sees hallucinations of Banquo's dead body all around him. Banquo's ghost starts to haunt Macbeth throughout the rest of the play. Blood: Blood in the play represents Violence. Over the course, Macbeth’s blood also becomes a symbol of guilt. The blood in this play also symbolizes Macbeth's sense of guilt, as well as his feeling that his guilt cannot be easily erased or "washed off." Blood symbolism also reveals much about Lady Macbeth’s attitude towards murder changes greatly. Sleep: When he murders Duncan, Macbeth thinks he hears a voice say "Macbeth does murder sleep" Sleep symbolizes innocence, purity, and peace of mind. Macbeth does begin to “Murder sleep”, killing Duncan. Lady Macbeth as trouble sleeping walking and starts to sleep walk. Sleep also plays a symbol by showing that Macbeth is haunted by many different nightmares. Darkness: The Evil nature of Macbeth’s (horrible deeds), and the darkness in Macbeth’s heart. This relates to unnatural world and witches. Darkness is used whenever something terrible is going to happen. Macbeth wants darkness he wants to murder Duncan and become king. Through Darkness you see that Macbeth will do whatever it takes to become king, even going as far as to kill someone. Witches: The witches symbolize the dark side of human nature. The Witches are pure evil. The different witches live to torture and harass. The witches are evil because they lead people to bad things because of their misleading illusions. Finally, the witches represent the evil that in buried deep inside Macbeth. |