In all of Shakespeare's plays he uses many forms of imagery. Imagery is the art of making images, the products of imagination. In the play "Macbeth", Shakespeare applies the many images, most of which are of clothing, blood and darkness. Each one seems to contain an important symbol of the play, symbols that the reader must understand if they are to interpret either a single passage, or the entire play as a whole.
The most significant form of imagery used in the play "Macbeth" is that of darkness. It is used to demonstrate the darkness in a tragedy. Shakespeare uses the.
witches, the guilt in Macbeth's soul, and the darkness of the night to set the mood of the play. The scenes that are most notable take place at night or in some kind of dark setting. "Darkness, we may even say Blackness, broods over this tragedy. It is Remarkable that almost all the scenes which at once recur to memory take place either at night or in some Dark Spot"(Bradley, 214), such as "the vision of the dagger, the murder of Duncan, the murder of Banquo, and the sleepwalking of Lady Macbeth"(Bradley, 214). The darkness symbolizes many things. First, it stands for the death and evil in the play. "Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires. The idea that only in darkness can such evil deeds be done is ever present with both Macbeth and his wife, as is seen in their two different and most characteristic invocations to darkness"(Van Doren, 330). The darkness is supposed to show how all of the horrible things that occur in the night could be blocked out. This is evident when Macbeth calls on the night to come so that he can go on with his plans to kill Duncan. He say "Come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke if hell, that my keen knife see not thee wound makes nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark"(I, v, 51-53). Macbeth calls on thick night to come cloak in darkness the evil deed he is about to do, he wants this so that it will not be revealed and no witnesses will see his black desires.