Macbeth Analysis

Macbeth is full of imagery of light and darkness. From the first, the cover of night is invoked whenever anything terrible is going to happen. Lady Macbeth, for example, asks "thick night" to come...

The play opens on a foggy heath amidst a terrible thunder storm. Most of the subsequent action also takes place under the cover of darkness, whether it's at Macbeth's first castle, Inverness, or la...

People are always running around saying that Macbeth is one of the "greatest tragedies ever written." This might be true, but what the heck's a "tragedy" anyway? (We need to know the answer to this...

Literary critics don't call the play Shakespeare's "darkest tragedy" for nothing. It opens with three witches conjuring on a heath amidst thunder, lightening, "fog and filthy air," which establishe...

Reading any one of Shakespeare's plays can feel like reading a lengthy poem and that's because they're written in a combination of verse (poetry) and prose (how we talk every day). We break all of...

Exactly what you think is up with the title. Shakespeare wasn't a guy to waste words. That said, we don't want to leave you feeling disappointed so here's a bit of trivia that might interest you. I...

We couldn't help it. We just had to take a peek at the ending of the play. Here's what goes down, in case you haven't finished reading the play yet.Macbeth is slain by Macduff, who lops off Macbeth...

Macbeth has been mostly responsible for the crown's victory over the rebel Scots and Irish invaders. Before we even meet him, his own King and the men that fight under him have prepared us to encou...

Macbeth has heard the witches' prophecy that he will be King of ScotlandBefore hearing this, Macbeth was pretty content with his life. Now he has horrible imaginings, ones that befit a traitor more...

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In theater circles, Macbeth is considered to be an unlucky play. Saying the play's name aloud is considered bad luck – that's why it's often referred to as "the Scottish play."At about half t...

There are plenty of allusions to sex in Macbeth and more times than not, they're about impotence and sterility. The weird sisters cast a spell to "drain" a sailor "dry as hay" so he won't be able t...

Tarquin, who raped Lucrece (2.2.55) Gorgon or Medusa who turned men to stone (2.3.72)A farmer: well-known alias for Father Garnet of the Gunpowder Plot (2.2.4)The equivocator: central in the Gunpow...