Darkness is used to establish the evil parts of the play, and sunshine is used to establish victory or goodness in it. A " constant idea in the play arises out of the symbolism that light stands for life, virtue, goodness; and darkness for evil and death. angels are bright ; the withes are secret, black and midnight hags; and, as Dowden says, the moment of the whole play might be summed up in the words, "good things of day being to droop and drowse""(Van Doren, 330). "In the whole drama, the sun seems to shine only twice: first in the beautiful but ironical passage where Duncan sees the swallows flirting round the castle of death, and afterwards when at the close the avenging army gathers to rid the earth of its shame"(Bradley, 214). Kenneth Muir also sees a connection between light and darkness representing the fight of good verses evil; he "also observes a contrast between the powers of light and darkness in Macbeth. Darkness pervades all the action in Macbeth's world where as light manifests itself in the scenes in England and those in which Malcolm and Macduff restores order at the end of the play"(Muir, 4). He goes on to state " there is also a contrast throughout the play between the powers of light and darkness Many scenes are set in darkness. Duncan arrives at Inverness as night falls he is murdered during the night; Banquo returns from his last ride as night is falling"(Muir, 275). The images of light and darkness as a contrast is very evident through out the play, the " dualities related to the light verses the dark motif include contrasts between angel and devil, heaven and hell, and truth and falsehood" (Muir, 270), these are the meaning behind the contrasts. It is very evident that the play is a battle between good and evil, the light and darkness images contrast each other to represent this battle and make it clearer to see. This play is all about darkness, murder and evil, and they all tie hand in hand.
