Imagery visually describes many of the key ideas in Macbeth. Firstly Shakespeare uses the imagery of light and darkness to display the good and the bad in the characters …show more content…
A few important symbols in Macbeth include, the dagger, witchcraft, and dead children. The dagger that Macbeth sees represents the guilt that he will feel once he has committed the crime of murder. The dagger is an apparition and Macbeth knows that when he says that it is a “A dagger of the mind, a false creation”. (2.1.45) Meaning that his mind is telling himself that he is guilty by foreshadowing his misdemeanor, yet Macbeth cannot clutch the dagger symbolizing his need for power. Once the dagger is being held than he reigns. Another symbol in the play, witchcraft, is used to symbolize the darkness and depravity of the human soul especially Macbeth’s. The part of the soul that bends itself toward evil and darkness. The witches are present from scene 1 of the play and when they first meet Banquo and Macbeth they plant the seeds of evil and corruption in Macbeth 's brain which overall puts the wheels in motion for that lay ahead (1.3.53). Without the witches symbolism there would be no story of Macbeth due to their forthright prophecies and ideas implanted in Macbeth to become king. Dead children is another symbol in Macbeth that is more subtle. The dead children represent what stands in the way of Macbeth ruling Scotland mercilessly. The witches throw into their cauldron a "finger of birth-strangled babe" and then conjure an apparition of a bloody child that says Macbeth will not be harmed by any man "of woman born" (4.1.87-88); Fleance witnesses his father 's murder before nearly being killed himself; Macbeth kills Young Siward; and Macduff 's young son, his "pretty chicken," is called an "egg" before he 's murdered. All people that are in the way of Macbeth being king, since the witches told Banquo that his heir will be king, and Malcolm is also next in line to be king but yet Macbeth still remains king of Scotland. As one can see, these