Role Of Weather In Macbeth

Words: 557
Pages: 3

Roseman 1

William Roseman
Mrs. Difederico
Pre-IB English II
22 May 2016 The Bad Weather Motif in Macbeth In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, weather plays a major role in the play in setting the mood and tone for the scenes. In the start of each scene, the setting is described and with it, the weather (if there is any mentioned). The weather plays a strong role in setting the tone for almost any literary piece, and it is no different in Macbeth. However, weather is always darker and more frightening in Macbeth, and it is only described in the darker and more violent scenes of the play. Weather, specifically thunderstorms and lightning, is directly connected to the witches throughout the play. Every time the witches enter there is
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The most obvious example of this is the witches, who use lightning, thunder, rain, and stormy weather overall to make there appearances in the play. The weather of course represents the chaos and the darkness that the witches bring with them whenever they appear in the play. Many scenes that brought chaos and death also had bad weather in them. Stormy weather also appears whenever often where there is chaos in the play, even if the witches are not present in the scene. “The night has been unruly: where we lay, / Our chimneys were blown down…” (2.3.54-55). These lines by Lennox are of course about the night Macbeth killed King Duncan, where the regicide was a crime serious enough to throw the entirety of nature out of balance. Another example of bad weather representing death and chaos is when Banquo says to Fleance, “It will rain to-night” (3.3.16). This of course is the scene of Banquo’s assassination, one of the most violent points of the play. While the bad weather has not started when the scene opens, and there is no indication it began to rain right as Banquo was murdered, Banquo stating it will rain gives the idea that the night sky is dark and cloudy, foreshadowing the things to