The Use of Night and Darkness in Macbeth Shakespeare is known for his descriptively rich plays. It also does a great job of describing both the characters and the setting. One specific area of ​​the play MacBeth is the use of night and darkness to show evil or events that are not right. Examples of this are the numerous appearances of witches, the murders that occur, and the conflicts that MacBeth faces with his mental health. The following three paragraphs will discuss these topics further. The first example of Shakespeare's use of night and darkness in the appearances of the three witches. The witch sisters are the main sources of evil in the play MacBeth. When witches are active, thunderstorms or the darkness of the woods always accompany them. This demonstrates great wickedness. "Thunder and lightning. Three witches enter." This is the description of the opening scene right before the introduction to the witches. This shows their evil nature as they are followed by strong storms in dark conditions. Another quote is "It is beautiful the bird and the bird is beautiful: it flies in the fog and the dirty air." This is another example of the disgusting, dirty and dark atmosphere surrounding witches. Then, towards the end of the speech of Hecate, queen of the witches, she says "Listen! I am called. My little spirit, see: a misty cloud sits and remains for me." This shows a clear mental image of the foggy and ugly conditions that are evident when witches are around. So this is a great example of how Shakespeare is able to connect darkness and stormy conditions with evil. The second example of Shakespeare's writing techniques to show evil as darkness is the number of murders and when they occurred. When a murder occurred, it was often committed at night or in the dark. This then also ties into the whole connection between darkness and evil, murder being the source of evil. The most well-known example of murder is when MacBeth kills Banquo. During his speech in which he is about to kill Banquo he says: "...Nature seems dead, and evil dreams abuse the veiled sleep. Witchcraft celebrates the offerings of pale Hecate and the withered Homicide, alarmed by his sentinel, the wolf , who howls at his watch". ......" The references to dreams, sleep, witches and the howling of the wolf all describe the night as this is when most of those words are seen.