What is Imagery?

In general, imagery refers to the use of language to represent things, actions, or even abstract ideas. In its most common use, the word suggests visual pictures. A writer may combine both visual and non-visual images. Figures of speech are employed to express abstract ideas and give immediacy and vividness to a writer's thought. Sometimes reference is made not to a single picture but to an abstraction or condensation of a series of pictures when using the word image. When extended further, the word image becomes synonymous with an idea or vision. In brief, imagery serves as a vehicle for imaginative thought and the aesthetic experience, which the writer attempts to communicate.

Shakespeare using Imagery

Shakespeare's use of garment imagery in this play is praiseworthy. When Ross, on orders of the king, calls Macbeth Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth uses this garment image to express his confusion:

"The Thane of Cawdor lives; why do you dress me in borrowed robes?"

The garment imagery in the play is also used to discredit Macbeth. At the end of the play, when Macbeth is defeated, Caithness sees him as a man vainly trying to fasten a large garment on himself with too small a belt. In this connection, Angus comments:

"Now does he feel his title hang loose about him, like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief?"

The series of garment imagery is supplemented by a series of masking or cloaking images. Some of the cloaking images make us conscious of the disgraceful self of Macbeth. For example, before the murder of Duncan, Macbeth tells his wife, "The false face must hide what the false heart does.". Again, just before the murder of Banquo, Macbeth calls upon the night to scarf up the eye of a pitiful day. Lady Macbeth offers a powerful image when she calls upon the night to "wrap itself in the dunnest smoke of hell" so that her sharp knife does not see the wound it makes.

There are recurring images of blood in Macbeth. The images of blood have been used in this play to create an atmosphere of horror. After murdering Duncan, blood- imagery is used to create a sense of horror and guilt when Macbeth says, "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?" In the banquet scene, Macbeth refers to the "gory locks" of Banquo. It expresses his feelings of horror and guilt at seeing Banquo's ghost. In the same scene, Macbeth's fear of vengeance is expressed in terms of blood: "It will have blood, they say. Blood will have blood."

We have plenty of imagery in the play, contributing to the atmosphere of darkness and light. In the play, light stands for life, virtue, and goodness, while darkness stands for evil and death. Here we can sum up the movement of the whole play in these lines:

"Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, while night's black agents to their preys do rouse."

Then we have the images of disorder and sickness. The images of disorder are more striking when they are placed in contrast to those of order. Thus, when the banquet at Macbeth's castle is on, an intimation of disorder comes in the form of the murderer with blood on his face, hardly a suitable guest, and then complete disorder follows with the arrival of Banquo's ghost. Sickness stands for disorder quite often in Macbeth. We find disorder in Macbeth's mind when he is determined to bring ruin to the universe:

"Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep in the affliction of these terrible dreams that shake us nightly."

We have violent images in the play, which contribute to the general atmosphere of the play. Some of the noteworthy violent images of the play are: the babe torn smiling from the mother's breast and dashed to death; pouring the sweet milk of concord into hell; sorrows striking heaven on the face, so that it resounds and yells out "like syllables of dolour"; the mind lying in restless ecstasy on a rack; the mind full of scorpions; and the tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury.

Using of Imagery

Imagery example

Lady Macbeth's sleep-walking scene

When Macbeth is busy assembling his men to fight Malcolm, Lady Macbeth is left alone in the castle at Dunsinane. She is left to brood over the murder Macbeth has committed at her command. Her guilt and fear follow her even in dreams, and she begins to walk in her sleep. Her gentlewoman calls for a doctor, who watches for two nights but does not see Lady Macbeth come out of her chamber. But, on the third night, he observes Lady Macbeth walk down the hall with a lantern, rubbing her hands violently as if trying to wash away a stain of some sort. She sighs, weeps, and mutters about the murder of Duncan, the murder of Banquo, and the murder of Lady Macduff. She also refers to the knocking that was heard at the gate after Duncan's murder. The doctor and the gentlewoman are shocked as Lady Macbeth has inadvertently revealed the source of her distress. The doctor's comment on the behavior of Lady Macbeth is that "unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles." He leaves the castle, knowing that no doctor can cure what ails Lady Macbeth: "More needs she the divine than the physician'.

However, the images of peace, harmony, and beauty are not absolutely desired in the play. First of all, there is the picture of Duncan's court, where everybody is loyal to him and content. Then there is the picture of Inverness and its surroundings in the speeches of Duncan and Banquo when they arrive there as guests. Duncan says, "This castle has a pleasant seat." It is noteworthy that this picture possesses an unconscious irony because Duncan is going to be killed at this "pleasant seat."

Thus, the images in the play reinforce the various themes and add richness to the texture of the play.