by Amanda R. Dollak

Created on: January 20, 2009   Last Updated: January 13, 2010

Main Themes & Imagery in Shakespeare's Macbeth

William Shakespeare is extensively known for his lifelike and memorable characters. Who could ever forget such characters as Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet? They leap directly off the page and come vividly alive each time these plays are read. And they continue to enthrall countless audiences worldwide even today with their breathtaking and heartbreaking stories. Shakespeare directly uses characters such as these to explore human nature and many of the political and social issues of his time in the majority of his plays. However, as A.P. Rossiter (123-125) points out, the play Macbeth does not rely heavily on the characters to investigate these favorite topics of Shakespeare. Instead, Shakespeare utilizes specific themes and imagery to accomplish his purpose.

Main Theme #1: Regicide

There are numerous themes evident throughout Shakespeare's play Macbeth. Nevertheless, three of these themes are more dominant than the others. The first of these themes is regicide (the murder of a king). It is believed that Shakespeare wrote Macbeth not long after the Gunpowder Plot, which nearly cost King James his life. However, it is crucial to understand how controversial the concept of regicide was during the Elizabethan Era. In Shakespeare's day, Englishmen saw murdering the king as an unspeakable sin. They firmly believed that the king is ordained by God and, thus, has a divine right as king. The king is above the law and superior to his entire kingdom, answering solely and directly to God. Therefore, no man has the right to punish the king or remove the king from his God-given position (Shute).

Shakespeare addresses this widely accepted belief throughout Macbeth. This play reveals through Macbeth's murder of Duncan, the king of the Scots, how futile and evil regicide actually is. Eventually, Macbeth is helplessly imprisoned by his own crime, becoming excessively paranoid that his sin will be uncovered. Furthermore, he becomes obsessed with the idea that others will attempt to murder him to gain the throne, just as he has murdered Duncan to become king. In the end, Shakespeare shows that only when the throne is returned to its rightful heir (in this case, Malcolm), may the kingdom be returned to its previous state of harmony and balance (Mack 130-131).

Main Theme #2: Evil

The second dominant theme in Shakespeare's Macbeth is evil. In this play, Shakespeare probes the Elizabethan belief that the universe is deeply interconnected

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