Imagination in Macbeth

What makes Macbeth imaginative?

Macbeth is Shakespeares most imaginative play. Shakespeares high tone
of imagination and narrative skills keeps the audience involved and awe struck from
the start to the end. The story revolves around a feeling of greed and gloom,
continued by tragedy and despair. Every act in the play brings another interpretation
of the play by the audience. The bildungsroman of the characters in the play defines
Shakespeares wobbling thoughts in the play which all later become the streams that
combine in one single river.
The play is about a young warrior fighting under the divine Emperor of
Scotland. It is astonishing how Shakespeare connected his plays to his daily life,
perhaps in a way to relive the past. Macbeth was written in 1606, 3 years after the
death of Monarch of Scotland, Queen Elizabeth. Queen Elizabeth had no children,
nor any nephews or niece. After her death Her Majestys throne was handed over to
her distant cousin James. James ruled well but there were conspiracies in the
country that caused many rivals in the country and planned a plot to blow off James
parliament. Fortunately, the conspirators plans spilled and they were tortured and
killed in the most brutal fashion every in history. Most of Shakespeares plays try to
bring out the same setting and pose as a cautionary tale to all the potential regicides
depicting the fate of justice which will inevitably overtake them.
Shakespeares Macbeth has an extraordinary climax but as the story progresses,
everything becomes clear. Macbeth, the protagonist of the play, is introduced to the
play as a strong, brave, kind and trustworthy warrior and the audiences expectation
is a hopeful and happy tale of bravery. The wounded soldier narrates the scenes at
the battlefield portraying Macbeths bravery. Also in the initial scenes of Macbeth and

Imagination in Macbeth
her Lady together, Lady Macbeth claims Macbeth as kind in the phrase, Yet I do fear
thy nature; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way ,
which bends the play more towards the good side. But soon, as the play continues,
the dark evil side is visualised. The coin is now the other way round and the scenes
fiddle with the audience confusing them with thoughts of good and evil. Macbeth
shows is black side as he plans to murder King Duncan, his Lord. Although an evil
act, Macbeth shows evidence of self-imagination in introspection. This is inevitable in
the blood stained dagger scene as Macbeth throws his thoughts across the audience
provoking feeling of fear and tragedy. Shakespeare uses many superstitious aspects
in the play to bring feelings of internal dilemma and fear out of the characters.
Through his imagination, Shakespeare successfully conveys his thoughts that evil
minds never rest.
Further, Macbeth in the play appears restless in the play due to hi
imagination. His imagination and tense feeling that someday he would also meet
with the same fate as of Duncan kept him alive. The more he imagined, the more her
doubted people near him and walked on the dark side murdering his own trusty
people even Banquo, an ally to Macbeth.
The Witches in the play also mark the beginning of horror and tragedy. They
symbolise the desires that we mess with every day in our life. Just like we stand in
front of two path in our lives, one leading to our desires and one leading to our final
goal through a morally correct path. That is the moment to decide between desires
and ethic. The path of desires in very hypnotising and most of the times we end up
choosing that path because it seems to look good. But, the path of desire is not a
small, straight road, its a chain of events where one leads to another and never
leaves us until we escape the world. The Witches in the play stand like those

Imagination in Macbeth
hypnotising doctors pulling Macbeth towards them slowly converting him into an evil
and dark ruler. Unknown to Macbeth, the witches also took away Macbeths identity
showcasing him as an evil usurper.
Shakespeares creative use of language, imagination and creativity combine
in the most perfect blend with Tragedy to produce Macbeths Tragedy and the a
message to all traitors in the world that Justice is always done.