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Examples Of Light And Darkness In Macbeth

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Shakespeare’s play Macbeth is chock-full of different examples of imagery, many of which reappear throughout the entire play. Three of these major patterns include light versus darkness, clothing, and blood. The first example, light and darkness, is the most obvious and recurrent. In Shakespeare’s writing, light is associated with life, God, and acts of kindness, while darkness foretells death and evil. In the first act, Lady Macbeth asks for night to come so that her “keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry, ‘Hold, hold!’” (I.v.55-57). Here she is implying that the only thing that can stop her from murdering Duncan is the protection granted by light, which she is linking to God and heaven.

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