Macbeth bird imagery
Macbeth - bird imageryMacbeth - bird imagery
In Shakespeare�s Macbeth, the use of birds helps describe a character in an
inhumane way. It compares a character to the natural world and its natural
surroundings. The focus on the natural imagery of birds characterizes the
unnatural images that build up and grow around certain characters,
according to Shakespeare�s time.
The Captain telals King Duncan how, just at the moment when
Macbeth's forces defeated Macdonwald's rebels, the Norwegian king
attacked the Scottish. King Duncan asks if this new attack dismayed
Macbeth and Banquo. The Captain, trying to be humorous in a manful
manner, says: �Yes, as sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion�(1.2.39). The
Captain is comparing the predator to its prey in order to describe the way
Macbeth and Banquo reacted to the battles. Shakespeare is taking an
unnatural occurrence, such as a war, and characterizing it using natural
imagery(life) such as birds.
Immediately after Lady Macbeth reads her husband's letter about
the witches' prophecies, a messenger comes with the news that King
Duncan is coming to spend the night at her castle. After the messenger has
left, the first thing Lady Macbeth says is: �The raven himself is hoarse/ That
croaks fatal entrance of Duncan/ Under my battlements�(1.5.45-47). The
raven is a bird of ill omen, and Lady Macbeth means that the raven is
hoarse from saying again and again that King Duncan must die. Here,
Shakespeare is taking the idea of murder, and using the natural imagery of
a raven in order to reveal the thoughts of killing Duncan.
When King Duncan comes to Macbeth's castle, he remarks how sweet
the air is. Banquo agrees, and adds: �This guest of summer, /The
temple-haunting martlet, does approve, /By his loved mansionry, that the
heaven's breath/ Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze,/ Buttress, nor coign
of vantage, but this bird/ Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle�
(1.6.3-8). A "martlet" is a kind of swallow, who is "temple-haunting"
because it likes to build its nests high on the walls of tall buildings
("Haunting" doesn't have any ghostly connotations). When Lady Macbeth
heard that King Duncan was coming for the night, she imagined a raven
under her battlements, foretelling the death of the King. Instead, as the
King looks up to those battlements, he sees swallows gliding to and fro on
the breath of heaven. In this quotation, Shakespeare contrasts two birds,
the swallow(good) and the raven(evil), in order to contrasts the way
Duncan and Lady Macbeth see things at the exact moment.
While Macbeth goes to murder King Duncan, Lady Macbeth waits
and listens very carefully. In the following passage, she hears something,
then tells herself to be quiet and decides that she heard a screech owl:
"Hark! Peace! / It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, / Which gives
the stern'st good-night. He is about it" (2.2.4-6). The cry of a screech owl
was thought to announce a death, and a "fatal bellman" was a night
watchman who rang a bell to call a prisoner to his hanging. Lady Macbeth
is glad to hear the cry of the screech owl, because it means that Macbeth is
murdering King Duncan. Shakespeare uses nature to announce the death
of Duncan, such as the screech of an owl.
As Macduff is going in to say good morning to King Duncan, Lennox
tells Macbeth about the rough night. Chimneys were blown down,
lamentings and screams were heard in the air, and "the obscure bird /
Clamour'd the livelong night" (2.3.67-68). The owl is the "obscure bird,"
because it flies in the night and can't be seen. Perhaps the owl was the
same one that Lady Macbeth heard when Macbeth was killing King
Duncan. Just after Lennox finishes this speech, Macduff comes rushing in
with the news that King Duncan has been murdered. Shakespeare, once
again is using the owl, or nature�s sounds, in this case to describe the
scene of Macbeth quietly murdering King Duncan.
All of Shakespeare�s bird imagery quoted and explained are all
related. They all symbolize death, either the sounds of it or the thoughts of
it. The birds Shakespeare uses in this essay or evil, such as a raven or
screech owl, and if not evil, such as a sparrow, than its contrasted with
evil. Bird imagery adds definition to the unnatural images that accumulate
certain characters throughout Shakespeare�s tragedy of Macbeth.