Images and Imagery within Shakespeares Macbeth :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

The Reinforcing Imagery Within Macbeth In the classic Shakespearean drama Macbeth it seems that every scene is affluent with copious imagery - and for a purpose. Its intended purpose is to play a supporting role for more important facets of the play, for example theme. In his book, On the public figure of Shakespearean Tragedy, H. S. Wilson interprets the imagery of Macbeth Macbeth is a play in which the poetic atmosphere is very important so important, indeed, that some recent commentators give the impression that this atmosphere, as created by the imagery of the play, is its determining quality. For those who pay most attention to these powerful atmospheric suggestions, this is doubtless true. Mr. Kenneth Muir, in his introduction to the play - which does not, by the way, interpret it plain from this point of view - aptly describes the cumulative effect of the imagery The contrast between idle and darkness is part of a general antithesis between unspoiled and evil, devils and angels, evil and grace, hell and heaven . . . and the disease images of IV, iii and in the last act clearly reflect both the evil which is a disease, and Macbeth himself who is the disease from which his hoidenish suffers.(67-68) Roger Warren comments in Shakespeare Survey 30 , regarding Trervor Nunns direction of Macbeth at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1974-75, on opposing imagery used to support the opposing notions of purity and erosive magic Much of the approach and detail was carried over, particularly the clash between religious purity and black magic. Purity was embodied by Duncan, very unaccented (in 1974 he was blind), dressed in white and accompanied by church organ music, set against the black magic of the witches, who even chanted Double, double to the Dies Irae. (283) L.C. Knights in the essay Macbeth explains the supporting role which imagery plays in Macbeths descent into darkness To listen to the witches, it is suggested, is like eating the insane root, That ta kes the reason prisoner (I.iii.84-5) for Macbeth, in the event of temptation, function, or intellectual activity, is smotherd in surmise and everywhere the imagery of darkness suggests not only the absence or withdrawal of light but - light thickens - the presence of something positively oppressive and impeding. (101) In Fools of Time Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy, Northrop Frye shows how the playwright uses imagery to reinforce the theme