These two ideas are interconnected by a Religious meaning. In this piece one can find two main ideas: death and sleep. Another device, Sleep Motif, is used throughout these lines to portray the idea of sleep. This song has a similar religious meaning, as in both one can see a battle going on between God and the Devil for minor pawns or as one likes to say, humans. The image of God and the Devil gambling for the souls of the dead is expressed in the song “Spanish Train” by Chris De Burgh. This is symbolic of God and the Devil having a battle for the lives of the attendants, and later dueling for them to either be rewarded in Heaven or condemned to Hell. Another example of Religious Symbolism is found in the lines “That death and nature do contend about them / Whether they live or die. Bell’s quotes relate to death in a way the door of life closes, and the door of death opens, waiting for us to walk through. This line can be related to Alexander Grahame Bell’s famous quote “As one door closes, another door opens. The doors are open for Duncan to walk through.

One can find Lady Macbeth say “The doors are open”, Here she is literally talking about the doors to Duncan’s chamber, however one can interpret these doors as the doors of death. Religious Symbolism is immensely important in shaping Lady Macbeth’s character and sculpting the recurring themes, yet does not appear nearly as much as Negative Diction and Sleep Motif. However the most significant devices are Negative Diction, Religious Symbolism, and Sleep Motif. Found throughout this passage are many literary devices, all of which are significant. This can be related to their decision which will either make them or break them.

It gives the reader a glance at what will come out of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s decision to kill Duncan through the archetype of “fire”, which appears in line 2.įire symbolizes light and warmth, yet at the same time symbolizes chaos and destruction.

The final key device used in these lines is Foreshadowing. Here one can sense just how nervous and frightened Lady Macbeth is. Near the end of these lines, Lady Macbeth uses many commas, caesuras, and enjambments, she is out of order. Simply by looking at the punctuation one can see that she is calm. Through the use of punctuation, one can visualize the emotions of Lady Macbeth.ĭuring the first few lines, each line is its own individual sentence, which ends in a period or colon. Contrast is used to express the difference in power and confidence between Lady Macbeth and King Duncan’s attendants, and also to distinguish life and death, in the case of the attendants. The three main themes of Evil, Ambition, and Macbeth-The Victim of Manipulation are heightened through the use of Positive and Negative Sleep Motifs, expressed in a negative context.Īlso found in this selection are examples of Negative Diction, Religious Symbolism, and Animal Imagery which all develop the reader’s understanding of death, and develop the three key themes that circulate around the idea of death. Shakespeare also makes us ponder if Lady Macbeth has a healthy ambition, that she herself controls, or if her ambition is controlling her. In Act 2 Scene 2, Lines 1 to 13 of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”, Shakespeare questions the reader about who in truth is controlling Macbeth, Lady Macbeth or himself.

Macbeth act 2 scene 2