Imagery in Macbeth

Neel, Vishwesh & Agastya

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