sulting from guilt and Lady Macbeth's nocturnal excursions while asleep are examples. Macbeth was unable to hide in the dark from the horrors of his deeds and he was haunted by the fear of discovery. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, was afraid of the dark and was using the light in an attempt to dispel her demons.Doctor: "How came she by that light?"Gentlewoman: "Why, it stood by her: she has light by her continually; 'tis her command." (V,i,24-25)Shakespeare uses sunlight and darkness in contrast to intensify our understanding of his guilt.Old Man: "Threescore and ten I can remember well;Within the volume of which time I have seenHours dreadful and things strange, but this sore nightHath trifled former knowings.Ross: "Ah! good father,Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act,Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock 'tis day,And yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp.Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame,That darkness does the face of earth entomb,When living light should kiss it?" (II,iv,1-10)The darkness of the deed overshadowed the very sun itself.Shakespeare's birds symbolize the good and evil characters his plays in much the same was as his use of "light" and "darkness" symbolizes these traits. He used the martlet and the wren to symbolize good, and the raven, owl, and hell-kite (IV,iii,217) to symbolize evil.In the fifth scene of the first act, where news is brought to Lady Macbeth that the king is coming, it is not by chance that she uses the symbol of a raven to describe the messenger, "The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan. (I,v,37)" Not only is the sound of a raven's call thought to bring death, but the raven itself symbolizes death, blackness and evil.The next scene, scene six, where King Duncan arrives, contains a contrast to the evil raven. The king expresses his liking for Macbeth's castle, Banquo speaks of him as a "temple-haunting martlet" (I,vi,4-10) The martlet is a ...
