Paper no: 101 Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration Period

1. Topic- Symbols in
Macbeth Play.
Presented by – Hinaba D. Sarvaiya
Roll number- 13
Email id- hinabasarvaiya1711@gmail.com.

2. Brief introduction of author:-
 Born- Startford-upon-
Avon,England
 Baptised- 26 April, 1564
 Died- 23 April, 1616
 Occupation- Playwright, Poet,
Actor
 Era-:Elizabethan, Jacobean

3. Introduction:-
- Written in 1606.
- Tragedy that follows the rise and fall of Macbeth after three Witches prophesize his
future.
- Declar to macbeth will become King.
- He Killed the current king and his friend Banquo.
- However, Macbeth, in his blind desire to keep the throne, makes several errors that
laed to his desire and the rise of Banquo’s son, Malcom.

4. Blood as a symbol:-
- Macbeth, blood symbolises guilt.
- Macbeth and Lady Macbeth murder more people in their Pursuit of the throne.
- Both are stuggle with the inability to wash the blood from their hands.
- For example:- In Act 2, Scene 2, Macbeth says:
“will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from
my hand? No, this my hand will rather. The multitudinous
seas incarnadine, making the green one red”.

5. - Macbeth is saying that not even all of the water in the oceans can wash away the blood. In fact,
the huge of the blood is so strong that the small amount on his hands will stain the oceans red.
- Macbeth and his wife cannot fully wash the blood from their hand.
- Both are guilt about their crimes.

6. Sleep as a Symbol:-
- Sleep symbolises Peace and innocence in Macbeth.
- For example:- Act 2, Scene 2 after murdering king Duncan in his sleep, Macbeth hears a
voice say,
“Macbeth does murder Sleep”
- He disturbed by nightmares and his wife sleepwalks.
- She loss of peace and disturbed his behaviour.
- Act 3, Scene 4, she says:
“you lack the season of all nature’s, sleep”
Which means that his lack of sleep is driving him mad.

7. Weather as a Symbol:-
- Lightning and Thunder storms awake at night Symbolises the corruption of the natural
human order.
- Weather is used to foreshadow conflict: In Act 1, Scene 1, the frist witch says,
“when shall we three meet again? In, thunder, or in
rain?”
- The second witch replies,
“when the battle’s lost and won”.

8.  For the example,
 Duncan is murdered, storms rage through the Night to demonstrate a shift in
moral and political structures.
 Macbeth struggle and changed the political order.

9. Conclusion:-
“He was not of an age, but for all time”.
- Ben Jonson.
- Complex play written by Willam Shakespear.
- Sleep,blood and weather explore the events, plot and themes in his tragedy.
- Blood symbolises guilt, sleep symbolises innocence and peacefulness, weather
represents the moral and political orders through macbeth.

11. Works citation:-
- www.gutenberg.org.ebook macbeth. November 1998.
- Artical
Shakespeare’s reputation and timeline of Shakespeare criticism.
- https://study.com/academy// lesson/symbols-in Macbeth.htm/