Symbolism Of Night In Macbeth

The use of the word “night” changes drastically early on in the play. Aside from just meaning night-time, “night” has other “dark” connotations to it. Since the darkness of night is the perfect time to commit a crime, it evolves from its temporal meaning, to represent death, evil, and deceit. The use of the word night evolves drastically through Macbeth. Shakespeare at first uses night with its literal meaning, The first instance occurs at the beginning of Act I scene 3. The witches appear, waiting for Macbeth to arrive to tell his fortune. The First Witch proclaims that she has power over the winds, and will use them to torture the sailor at sea so that he shall sleep “neither night nor day”(1.3, 19-21). Although using its original definition, …show more content…
In Act II, scene 2, Lady Macbeth begins by ranting to herself that Macbeth should have already killed Duncan. She exclaims, “It was the owl that shriek’d, the fatal bellman,/ Which gives the stern’st good-night” (2.2, 3-4). When she refers to the “good-night”, she means the final good night. Since one says “good-night” to someone before one sleeps, the “stern’st good-night”, is given to someone before their final sleep. Also it is implied that the scene occurs at night because the owl, a nocturnal bird, shrieked. Much later in Act V, Macbeth talks to himself about how much he has changed so quickly. He surprised that he is numb to the cry of a woman in distress. He says to himself, “the time has been, my senses would have cooled/ To hear a night-shriek”(5.5. 10-11). He has, because of his actions, become numb to the blood curdling shriek of death, even when it is his own wife. Not only has Macbeth dramatically changed throughout, but “night” has altered from meaning just “nighttime” to become a synonym for …show more content…
“Night”, which begins as referring to the time of day, evolves to mean both evil and death. Since the darkness of night allows for crimes to be committed easily, it functions as the main theme for murder in the play. Although having no physical effect, night slowly causes the alteration of the characters personalities. Macbeth, when given the opportunity to further his “career” uses nighttime as a shield for his crimes. When successful, the greedy side of his human nature causes him to continue these murderous acts which slowly eat away at his psyche. Nighttime is able to induce these emotions because during the day, people go about their day and interact with others, but when night arrives, they are forced to face their inner