Appearances often hide reality is a significant part of the play, revealing the tragedy in which the characters must cloak up their nature, indicating things are not always as they seem. The reality of someone can be changed depending on their desires and ambitions. Shakespeare presents appearance as a visual outforward form of what we see, where reality is what is actually going on.
Appearance vs. reality is presented in Macbeth, changing the flow of the play, allowing us to contemplate of what is real and what isn’t as Shakespeare stated that “glisters is not gold”.
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Appearances vs. reality is portrayed through many various techniques in Macbeth allowing us to understand the reality behind things. This includes repetition, dramatic irony, anaphora, deceit, light and dark imagery, and figurative language.
Shakespeare uses language techniques such as figurative language and rhyming couplets to get across the idea of how appearances can be deceptive which is established at the beginning of the play by the three evil witches, as they chant “Fair is foul, and foul is fair'' which is presented in act 1, scene 1. The use of this rhyming couplets is used to emphasize the line that sets the tone of the play, introducing the recurrent theme in the play 9; the discrepancy between appearance and reality. The meaning indicates whatever appears to be appealing and whatever appears to be impure is appealing, the meaning of the motif used is quite obvious. Shakespeare warns the audience that nothing can be trusted the use of the conjunction “and” shows both good and be can exist at the same time
Shakespeare also uses the technique of dramatic irony in parts of the play to convey the idea that appearances can be deceptive. This is evidenced when King Duncan arrives at Macbeth and says to lazy Macbeth “Fair and noble hostless, we are your guest tonight”. Lady Macbeth puts on a “fair” and “noble” look in Act 1, scene 6 with this example the theme of appearance vs. reality is emphasized as it shows the cunning nature of Lady Macbeth who puts a pleasant appearance to deceive Duncan and gains his trust, in order to hide her evil thoughts of murdering him.
Shakespeare uses light and dark imagery. The use of stars and dark nights are used for horrible scenes and are under the cover of darkness which also reveals to us the darkness of characters and their feelings. The constant depiction of the word “night” highlights the sense of darkness. After Malcom is proclaimed heir to the throne of school Macbeth says “Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires in Act 1, Scene 4 which illuminates Macbeth’s true thoughts and desires for others to see, having them hide their fire means hiding their desires within the nightly ambitious Macbeth. Using this imagery shows that Macbeth hides his dark thoughts in order to deceive others with his fake appearance, hoping that people can’t read him like a book. It contains 2 instances of alliteration in the repeating sounds of “let light” and “deep desires”. He used the metaphor in his deception of light as symbolic of goodness, while black symbolizes evil, creating and stimulating more vivid and precise scenes.
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