19th March 2018

Metaphor Paragraph

Powerful metaphors and compelling personification,  amplify Lady Macbeth’s evil intents and dark thoughts. In Act 1 Scene 5, Lady Macbeth has just had the light shine on the past events her husband, Macbeth has been through so far in the play. Shakespeare’s strong use of these language features has given us a clear insight into how Lady Macbeth understands these new developments and her cruel intentions to act on them.

After the messenger has delivered the news of the King’s plan to visit, Lady Macbeth tells the audience her thoughts in a metaphor full soliloquy that includes the phrase, “Come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, that my keen knife see not the wound it makes, nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark.” 

By illustrating the night as thick, and calling on it to cover her actions like it was a living thing is an example of personification and a metaphor. She wants to hide from heaven (God/goodness) and uses smoke from hell to obscure her motives and intentions. By using these opposites in this quote, Shakespeare has made the darkness and the night belong to the concepts of hell.

 

Join the conversation! 1 Comment

  1. 1) You’re making a real effort to express yourself precisely. Sometimes this falls over, like in the term “metaphor-full”, which I would suggest would be clearer if it were simply re-worded to say something like “metaphor-filled”, or even: “Soliloquy filled with metaphors”. Remember, the most important purpose of analytical writing is to be clear.

    2) You make a few unsubstantiated points – for example, you make a reference to “opposites”, but don’t explain what this means.

    3) You expect the metaphor to explain itself. You’ll find that if you go to the trouble of fully expanding the metaphor – for example “Shakespeare is referring to heaven as if it were a small child in bed, suggesting that it should pull its covers up to protect it from..”, you will then be able to squeeze more analysis from your observations.

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