The finger of a birth strangled babe makes its way into the witches’ cauldron. Images of dead children appear frequently.Her subconscious hand scrubbing is an outward manifestation of her inner guilt. Lady Macbeth sleepwalks in act 5 and imagines she has bloody hands that she is unable to get clean. His assertion that if he were to wash his hands in the sea, the seas would turn the color of his hands demonstrates his overwhelming guilt, a guilt Macbeth does not feel for the murders of Banquo and Macduff’s family. Macbeth’s bloody hands symbolize his guilt for the murder of Duncan.The grasping of both does not bring the desired happiness. The floating dagger Macbeth sees before murdering Duncan symbolizes the throne itself: Macbeth sees it, yet cannot grasp it when the dagger is grasped so is the throne.Now your teacher wants you to analyze symbols in Macbeth (why do teachers always have to ruin things by talking about symbols?) You kind of understood it (with a little help from my Macbeth summary perhaps). In the play, they are associated to Macbeth and his evil deeds.You read Macbeth. In the past, wolves were considered responsible for the loss of sheep and tragic events. Wolves are also symbols of greed and cruelty. As a matter of fact, in the same way as wolves hunt in packs, Macbeth and his wife “hunt” Duncan together. In this sentence, the wolf is associated with Duncan’s murder. It is mentioned by the three witches in one of their most famous speeches: “Witchcraft celebrates pale Hecate’s offerings, and withered Murder, Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf Who howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, With Tarquin’s ravishing strides, towards his design Moves like a ghost”. The wolf is another important symbol of the play. As a matter of fact, Macbeth is afraid of Banquo and thinks he may destroy everything he has obtained. She'll remain close and be herself whilst our poor malice remains in danger of her former tooth.” In this sentence, the snake symbolises a situation of danger. Macbeth also mentions a snake when he speaks about Banquo: "We have scorched the snake, not killed it. This is another reason for which Macbeth is compared to a snake: he has to slither out of the innocent flower after Duncan is murdered and gain the throne without invoking suspicions.
Serpents aren’t just evil, but they also slither. What’s more, they have always been considered closely connected to evil: a snake persuaded Eve to eat the forbidden fruit of Eden's garden and even in today’s Harry Potter the snake is the symbol of the evil team of the school. As a matter of fact, snakes shed their skins. The “serpent under it” symbolises transformation. With this sentence, the evil woman invites her husband to appear loyal and innocent but to act in a totally different way. One of the most famous quotes of Lady Macbeth is “Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it”. As a matter of fact, Macbeth kills a person that is much more important and powerful than him. This sentence has a deep symbolic meaning: the falcon represents Duncan, while the owl represents Macbeth. On Tuesday last A falcon, tow’ring in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed”.Owls don’t usually hunt falcons, because falcons are much bigger than owls. What’s more, the owl is also mentioned by the Old man: ‘Tis unnatural, Even like the deed that’s done. Therefore, this animal is connected to the supernatural world and to the three witches, because it “has more than human knowledge”. As a consequence, it already knows what will happen. In this sentence, the owl announces Duncan’s death. As a matter of fact, the night of Duncan’s murder, Lady Macbeth quotes “It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman, Which gives the stern’st good-night”. It was thought their shrieks anticipated bad happenings. Therefore, they are closely connected to darkness and have always been associated with death. In my opinion, three of the most important animals of the play are the owl, the serpent and the wolf. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, animals are often mentioned and have a symbolic meaning.
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