Clothing Imagery This form of imagery is used throughout the play to symbolize disguise, and to emphasize on the theme of appearances vs. reality 1.2: Till he unseamed him 1.3: Why do you dress me in borrowed robes? 1.3: New honors come upon him, / Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould / But with the aid of use 1.5: Pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell 1.7: Was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself? 2.2: Ravelled sleeve of care 2.3: Unmannerly breeched with gore 5.2: like a giants robe/Upon a dwarfish thief Horticultural Imagery Shakespeare uses the metaphor of plants to suggest different ideas 1.4: I have begun to plant thee 1.4: The harvest is your own. 3.1: But that myself should be the root and father 3.1: Seeds of Banquos kings 5.3: Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow 5.9: Planted newly Avian Imagery Characterizes peoples traits and physical ability, symbolizes superiority or hunting, as well as establishes hierarchy amongst the characters: 1.2: Dismayed not this our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?/Yes, as sparrows, eagles, or the hare, the lion. 1.5: The raven himself is hoarse/That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan/Under my battlements. 2.3: Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?/ What, all my pretty chickens and their dam/ At one fell swoop? 2.4: A falcon towring in her pride of place/Was by a mousing owl hawked by and killed. Imagery of Scotlands Suffering Through a variety of literary devices, such as metonymy, pun, personification, metaphor and hyperbole, Shakespeare symbolizes and emphasizes the repercussions of Macbeths actions, primarily of Duncans murder and Macbeths tyranny. 2.4: Beauteous and swift, the minions of the race,/Contending gainst obedience as they would/ Make war with mankind. 3.3: The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day;/the son is fled. 4.3: I think our country sinks beneath the yoke;/It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash/Is added to her wounds. 4.3: Where sighs, groans, and shrieks that rend the air/and good Imagery of Masculinity Masculinity and its interpretation is a major theme in this play. For example, Malcolm sees a man as someone who takes action and avenges himself, whereas Macduff argues that a man should also feel for himself and his loved ones. In fact, Macbeths idea of masculinity closely resembles Malcolms, as he believed that if he didnt have the courage to kill Duncan, no one would. 1.7: I dare do all that may become a man;/Who dares do more is none 2.3: Who can be wise, amazed, temprate, and furious,/Loyal and neutral, in a moment? 3.1: Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men,/As hounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,/Shoughs, water-rugs, and the demi-wolves are clept/All by the name of dogs. 4.3: Dispute it like a man./I shall do so;/But I must also feel it like a man; Imagery of Guilt & Cleansing This imagery is used to show how guilt cannot be washed away 1.4: shakes my being 2.2: Will all great Neptunes ocean wash this blood/ Clean from my hand? 3.1: mine eternal jewel/Given to the common enemy of man 3.2: O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! 3.2: Deed of dreadful note 5.1: washing her hands 5.1: heres a spot 5.3: Come, sir, dispatch. If thou couldst, doctor, cast/The water of my land, find her disease/And purge it to a sound and pristine health, Synecdoche Since synecdoche is used instead of referring to the characters directly, the audiences attention is shifted from the general perspective the audience has on the character the speaker is referring to, to the more significant actions of the character which the speaker wants the audience to focus on. 1.2: Point against point, rebellious arm gainst arm 3.6: May soon return to this our suffering country/ Under a hand accursed. 4.3: I think withal/There would be hands uplifted in my right. 5.7: The devil himself could not pronounce a title/More hateful to mine ear. Biblical Allusions 1.2: Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, Or memorise another Golgotha A reference to Christ's death upon Mount Calvary, as reported in Matthew 27.33: "And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull. According to John 29.34, a Roman soldier pierced Christ's side as he hanged from the cross. Shakespeare's Sergeant tells King Duncan that the army he has just encountered is as violent and remorseless as the soldiers who put Christ to death. 2.1: the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell. Macbeth is about to send King Duncan to his judgment before God. In Matthew 25.31, we are told that "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He shall sit upon the throne of His glory/And before Him shall be gathered all nations..." to be judged. 2.2: A little water clears us of this deed: How easy is it, then! Pilate says this to the men who want to kill Jesus. Pilate says this because he wants nothing to do with killing Jesus. 2.3: Knock, knock, knock! Whos there, i the name of Beelzebub? Beelzebub is the chief of the devils, in this scene it tells us that Porter is a slave to a man comparable to the devil, indirectly calling Macbeth Satan. Historical Allusions