Much Ado About Night
There is no doubt that Lady Macbeth has some killer lines along with her husband in the tragedy of Macbeth. Main characters are easily spotted from the beginning and have many monologues to prove it. However, there is one character that has not one line but is vital to Shakespeare's masterpiece. It comes and goes throughout the play with its own traits that is known but not always recognized. 'Night' is used twenty-two times in Macbeth in order to demonstrate evil and darkness that surrounds that time of day. Night's traits are so distinct that the word could be considered a character in the play because of the huge impact it has. Night is also used as a foreshadowing tool along and shows the state of morality in the play and characters.
Shakespeare demonstrated with night that a word with a theme can be a character.
Lady Macbeth by George Cattermole.
English: Poster of Thos. W. Keene in William Shake...
The sleepwalking Lady MacbethNight has everything a real character would have: traits, changes, impact and impact. The scene is set at night when his wife's alleged suicide occurs, and when Macbeth kills Duncan and Banquo. The general feel Shakespeare conveys is darkness, chaos and evilness. He describes Night's theme through an old man commenting on the strange night that Macbeth kills Duncan. Ross replies, "By th' clock 'tis day, / And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp" (II.iv.9-10). Ross is displaying the traits of night as "strangling" the sun as if it was consuming the good and chaos arising because of it. Night shows presence later in Act II when the men are commenting about the horses eating one another. This imagery is creepy but is necessary to display the evilness. When Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are about to go plan to kill their enemy in Acts 2 and 3, both of...