species of swallow which often nests in the steeples of churches. We also note the irony of the description of Macbeth's castle as being similar to a church where such evil deeds are to be committed.The owl is definitely the most present feathered symbol in the play. This bird of the night appears many times in the play as an omen of death and evil like the raven, but also as a predator which lives by night. This provides yet another example of darkness as evil. Lady Macbeth's lines hint at the evil deeds which are to follow.Lady Macbeth: "It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman,Which gives the stern'st good-night." (II,ii,3)"I heard the owl scream..." (II,ii,16)Lennox talks of an "obscure bird" (II,iii,60) in his description of his troubled sleep. It would be most likely a night bird, probably again, the owl. In Ross's conversation with the old man in Act II, Scene 4, the old man mentions "A falcon, towering in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd," which suggests the bird of ill-omen has finally stuck. The owl makes a reappearance later in the fourth act where, left defenseless by Macduff,Lady Macduff: "...for the poor wrenThe most diminutive of birds, will fight -Her young ones in her next - against the owl." (IV,ii,9-11)Shakespeare was if nothing else, a moralist and many or most of his works contained a moral to be heard and noted. For example, The Merchant of Venice and the consequences of greed; Twelfth Night and the foolishness of ambition and virtue as its own reward; Romeo and Juliet and the tragic costs of enmity; The Taming of the Shrew and (in those days) the virtues of obedience, to name but a few. Macbeth is no exception. It is an example of lust for power and the destruction that follows in its wake. We have many contemporary examples of this in world dictators, military juntas and corporate criminals. So Macbeth can be seen as having contemporary significance.We may now ask why the works...
