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REVIEW
- Spurgeon, Caroline F. E. "Shakespeare's Imagery in Macbeth."
- Shakespeare's Imagery and What It Tells Us. New York: Cambridge UP, 1935. 324-35. Rptd. in Twentieth Century Interpretations of Macbeth. Ed. Terence Hawkes. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1977. 13-21.
Thesis: Caroline Spurgeon was a pioneer in the study of Shakespeare's imagery, and she is still well worth reading. In this piece she discusses the following four "main ideas" expressed by imagery:
- "The idea . . . that Macbeth's new honours sit ill upon him, like a loose and badly fitting garment, belonging to someone else" (13).
- "Another image or idea which runs through Macbeth is the reverberation of sound echoing over vast regions, even into the limitless spaces beyond the confines of the world" (15).
- "Another constant idea in the play arises out of the symbolism that light stands for life, virtue, goodness; and darkness for evil and death" (17).
- "The fourth of the chief symbolic ideas in the play is one which is very constant with Shakespeare, and is to be found all through his work, that sin is a disease--Scotland is sick" (18).
She also mentions the idea of "the unnaturalness of Macbeth's crime" (19), "the action of rapid riding" (20), "the constant and recurring images of blood" (20), and "the images of animals, nearly all predatory, unpleasant, or fierce" (20).
Bottom Line: Good stuff.
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