ACT THREE: #3 Imagery/Symbolism

February 25, 2010 at 12:48 pm (Uncategorized) (, , , , , , , , )

Scene Observations

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Scene I:

Fear, Devil, Man

Scene I was the setting basis for the beginning of the act so there was not as much depth to imagery and symbolism. However, there were quite a few mentioning of “fear” of Macbeth’s. An example can be found in line 48 “Our fears in Banquo”. The devil have also been mentioned in Line 68 “Given to the common enemy of man” as Macbeth explains that all he has done was to give the crown to Banquo’s sons and thrown his situation into the Devil’s hand. Later on when Macbeth tries to persuade the murderers to do the deed, “man” and “manhood” these type of diction was used for the imagery.

Scene II:

Sleep/dream, Animals

Scene II begins with the dialogue between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. Within the conversation, two main symbols was used and that was sleep/dreams and animals (fear was also mentioned in line 17). Macbeth complains or describes that he was not able to have a good night rest for a very long time. The usage of animals include: bats, scorpions, snakes, beetle, crows.

Scene III:

Weather

A short scene of Banquo’s murder. The murderer exclaims “It will be rain tonight” (Line 16) on the weather; a symbol use.

Scene IV:

Fear, Serpent, Man, Animal, Sleep

After the murder of Banquo, there has been many mentioning of “fear” in Macbeth’s dialogues. Such as: “To saucy doubts and fears” (Line 24). When Fleance escaped was known to Macbeth, he became scared for his thrown again. The symbol serpent is also exaggerated here describing them to be Banquo and Fleance. Snake-related words like “venom” is also used. After talking about fear, maniless is also mentioned and Lady Macbeth asks Macbeth “Are you a man?” (Line 58) when he saw the ghost of Banquo but when it vanished, he said “I am a man again” (Line 6). The devil have also been mentioned for a more grave evil deed for description or relationship comparison. Animals was also used in Macbeth’s speech saying that Banquo can come back in rugged Russian bear, armored rhinoceros or a Hyrcan tiger and he still wont be scared (fear). Death was a major symbolism as well with words like “blood” “grave” etc. was used. Ending with “sleep”, it was mentioned once again that Macbeth is in lack of sleep.

Scene V:

Short scene of the witches. There were no major or noticable imagery/symbolism found. The pit of Acheron and the Moon such words were mentioned for a “fantical” mystery.

Scene VI:

Short scene of Lenox and Lord discussing. There were no major or noticable imagery/symbolism found.

Act Analysis

Throughout the book Fear has always been one of the major symbols that drives the plot and drives Macbeth to his actions/decisions. Due to his fear, he killed Banquo and almost Fleance as they threaten Macbeth’s throne. Knowing the prophecy, he then tries to take control of fate by himself. Fear is measured by maniless in Macbeth’s Society as we saw once when Lady Macbeth tried to manipulate Macbeth to kill Duncan. It was also seen in Act 3 where Macbeth saw ghost of Banquo and was scared. Macbeth also persuades murderers to kill Banquo by asking them if they were men.
As a build-on from previous acts of the mentinoing of animals, Act 3 has an increasing number where Shakespeare utilizes animal references to give an idea or provoke a certain impression. Serpent was one of the most important and common animal references as well where serpent is often linked with evilness or sly (serpent from garden of eden). A comparison was made between Banquo and Fleance initiating that they are “evil” and must be out to get Macbeth as he says. Animals in Scene II were mostly dark or gloomy animals that relate to death or of some sort and this is the impression or idea Macbeth/Shakespeare is trying to hint at. Same goes with Scene 4 as animals of great power was said meaning Macbeth would be fearless to them in comparison to the ghost.
Sleeping was a continuation of previous acts. Macbeth is loosing sleep because he killed Duncan and is feeling unsteady about it. However, sleeping is also linked with death or the dead in the book. Thus making it an ironic consequence. As Macbeth continues to loose sleep, he begins to hallucinate and as said in Scene VI, he will recieve many more hallucinations that would mess with his mind until death.

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ACT TWO: #2 Setting

February 10, 2010 at 5:09 pm (Macbeth) (, , , , , , , )

Scene Observations

Scene I-III:

Act two takes place in the court within the castle of Macbeth’s. During that time, it was night time around 3AM in the morning. The king is asleep thus Macbeth was able to carry out the plan. In the three scenes, the place and time was not changed or just a slow passing of time in between each scenes. There was not as much description to the area or appearance of the setting but one could make out that it was dark and torches had to be used to see in the dark. During Banquo and Macbeth’s meeting, they could not identify each other to begin with. The time of the scene or most of the scenes in Act two is at night, suitable for the murder plan to be carried out. After each scene, there has not been much of a time difference.

Scene IV:

The setting of the scene finally changed, not so much, but to outside the castle. The time is still the same, as to late at night, but time has passed as Ross had appeared in the scene and Macduff later comes in to announce the news about the king.

Act Analysis

The main significance of the setting in Act two is the time of day. As it was extremely dark , for even the characters to see, this indicates a certain representation or message Shakespeare was trying to convey. Darkness can be related to evilness, loss of sight/truth, desires, dark of heart etc. This darkness emphasizes on the whole scene of the murder as it was done with dirty desires. This plays a role in trying to set the mood, acceptable for a night for murder. Tragedy and sadness is emphasized. Due to the fact that it was dark, it may suggest that Macbeth was trying to deceive people and lie to them that the guards were the ones who killed the king. Through darkness, it may act as a support to say that the people could not see through Macbeth’s lies and that darkness surrounds them. When analyzed further, one may see the darkness as a type of medium that Shakespeare uses to enhance the atmosphere of the play and bring out the dramatic irony. The irony is that the readers know the truth while the characters in the story struggles to see who was the killer.

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