Examples include the raging storms on the night of Duncan’s murder and the thunder and lightning that accompanies the appearance of the three witches. Unnatural meteorlogical phenomena occur during the play’s various murders or unnatural goings-on. Macbeth equivocates while justifying the murder of Duncan and the witches equivocate during their prophecies to Macbeth. Equivocation in Macbeth symbolizes self deception. The Equivocator at the Gate and equivocation in general is an allusion to Jesuit Henry Garnett who counseled Catholics to give equivocations in all their answers to Protestant inquisitors.
One of the kings is holding two orbs and is a symbolic representation of King James I who held two orbs on his coronation day and who was also a descendant of the real life Banquo. King James was one of Shakespeare’s main patrons and Shakespeare sought to honor him in Macbeth.Įight kings appear to Macbeth in a vision from the witches' cauldron followed by a mirror reflecting more kings. In order to comprehend the eight kings, one must understand for whom the play was written. The appearance of dead children symbolize the end of royal lineage and what happens when royal lines are extinguished. The fact that Macbeth is willing to murder children to retain his power indicates just how irredeemable he has become. The apparition of a bloody baby comes out of the cauldron and prophesies to Macbeth. The finger of a birth strangled babe makes its way into the witches' cauldron.
throughout the play the audience is provided with gory descriptions of the carnage.
Visions and hallucinations recur throughout the play and serve as reminders of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s joint responsibility for the growing body count (ex/ Banquo’s ghost, blood on Lady Macbeth’s hands). In the play, Duncan is always referred to as a king, while Macbeth is referred to as tyrant. The difference between kingship and tyranny Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband by questioning his manhood, and wishes that she herself could be “unsexed”. in the beginning, Macbeth is not inclined to commit evil deeds, but as the play goes on, his guilt and paranoia descend into a frantic, boastful madness. Throughout the play, destruction is wrought when ambition goes unchecked by moral constraints.
The corrupting power of unchecked ambition