e in the comprehension of light, even from the fire of a star, and is continuously in existence with feelings of righteousness. Shakespeare, again, creates a relationship between daylight and wholesome action when he allows Macbeth’s emotions toward Malcolm to be public, “Stars, hide your fires, Let not light see my black and deep desires (1.4.50).” Macbeth’s desires are to eliminate Malcolm and all that stand in his way of the throne. Through his words, Macbeth constructs another bridge between light and morality. Macbeth is asking for “a kind of moral anesthesia (Jorgensen 87).” Throughout the play, daylight controls every intension of the characters and reveals that only heavenly virtue can exist during the hours of daylight. The play moves in one direction constantly and daylight acts a precursor to protect the characters from unholy crimes. Macbeth word’s in act three sums up the basic understanding of the role of light within the play, “Good things of day begin to droop and drowse (3.2.52).” In one line of poetic genius, Shakespeare makes the obvious contrast between night and darkness being evil, and day and light linking with good. This contrast between light and dark is reiterated more than four hundred times throughout the play (Muir 49). In Macbeth, William Shakespeare constantly keeps the play moving in one direction by creating unique circumstances, such as light and dark, to control the character’s thoughts and actions. Shakespeare uses darkness to portray several emotions and actions, but first and foremost, he uses darkness to foreshadow the acts of treachery and murder. Nearly every evil intension, action, or thought is preceded by the element of darkness. Shakespeare allows Lady Macbeth to provide the first idea of darkness as a foreshadowing device for evilness. She calls for night before the murder of King Duncan, “Nor heaven pe...
