Monday, November 10, 2008

Act II symbolism

The most prominent symbolism that I saw in this act was mainly that of sleep, death/injury,clothing,and disease.
The first reference to clothing is when an English tailor, and that he clothes people, and the irony is that he asks the king to be woken up, which ties into a reference of sleep. The fact that he is a tailor is significant, since he clothes people, and at this time Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are playing Duncan and have killed him. Another reference to clothes is on page 96, "And when we have our naked frailties hid, that suffer in exposure, let us meet, and question this most bloody piece of work, to know it further." The meaning of this quote is that they should meet and talk of the matter again, when they are clothed and more well hidden. "Get on your nightgown," page 84, refers to Lady Macbeth telling her husband to act normal and have their nightclothes on to show that they were asleep, clearing them of the crime.
"The candles are all out," is a great reference to darkness in scene I. Another great piece of symbolism in scene I is disease on page 76,"A dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?" This is when Macbeth sees the dagger and decides that he does not want to kill Duncan, and this hints to the fact that he is going crazy. The next symbolism that follows this quote is one of death also on page 90, "I go, and it is done:the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell that summons me to heaven, or to hell."
Then there is also some symbolism in water, when Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to just wash his hands off like it is nothing. The truth is that they truly cannot escape what they have done, because we will see how they will go crazy in the end, like we saw in the play, and their crimes will catch up to them.

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