ng lived. " Life's but a walking shadow." Macbeth is saying here that one's life is dark and dreary, and that the light of life only serves to cast a dark shadow . " [A] poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more." A person lives his life like a bad actor. He only get one chance on the stage, and he does a terrible job. "Struts and Frets his hour" says that everyone overdramatizes events. Life according to Macbeth is like this and it ends.... "Signifying nothing."We can easily distinguish between what is life and what is death in the world of Macbeth through the interpretation of light/dark imagery. Towards the end of this play, however, it becomes difficult for me to relate to the character because he presents ideas in the direct opposite of what I generally associate with life and death. His feelings at this dismal point are that life is pain and he presents life with the imagery of darkness. The general connotation of death is one of darkness and sorrow. However, he now views it as an escape or an end to the darkness, possibly light. This reversal of the light and dark imagery Shakesphere uses causes me to have to stretch to relate to the character. By reaching to try and relate to Macbeth's agony, I see how Darkness/Evil blinded Macbeth and when he was no longer blinded, it was to late.The use of light and dark imagery brings a heavy tone to this play. Although the traditional values of light for life and dark for death are used by Macbeth, as he starts to see that neither life nor death hold any meaning for him, the light becomes darker ( a shadow) and the opposition becomes weaker. His struggle for life ends and he starts to see life and death as a single tone of darkness. We feel his strong emotions, the heaviness of his heart and his sense of despair as he expresses that everything has lost it's light. When the opposition The opposition of light and dark as symbols for life and death is t...
