Macbeth Poster Explanation

As our final project about Macbeth, we decided to create a poster with the most important symbols and how we would display them.

The three witches in general represent the dark side of human nature and fate. The ravens represent them and their dark magic. We chose this symbol as our first one, because the witches' prophecies are the reason why Macbeth and Lady Macbeth got interested in doing everything what it takes to become king/queen. The raven also announces the arrival of death for Macbeth with a voice hoarser than usual.
The witches' line in the first act: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" is often said to set the tone for the remainder of the play by creating a sense of moral confusion.

The next important symbol is an owl. It is a bellman because, according to superstition, the scream of the owl portends death and horror. In Macbeth the scream of an owl symbolizes evil and ominous doings. In the play, Lady Macbeth often hears this sound before and after killing somebody :“It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman.” After some time she gets crazy about them and starts to hallucinate.

In act II scene I in the play the floating dagger represents Macbeth's desire of killing Duncan. His mind has been working to plan the murder over a long time that even when Macbeth is awake, he sees the dagger pointing to Duncan. Macbeth was daydreaming about something he wants to do, but still cannot achieve.

The bloody hand is the most important symbol. It appears everywhere in the tragedy of Macbeth, beginning with the opening battle between the Scots and the Norwegian invaders. Once Macbeth and Lady Macbeth start killing to reach their aim to get the royal title, blood symbolizes their guilt, and they begin to feel that their crimes have stained them in a way that cannot be washed clean, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand?” Macbeth cries after he has killed Duncan, even as his wife scolds him and says that “a little water will do the job [clean the bloody hands].” (Act II, Scene II). Later, though, she comes to share his horrified sense of being stained: “Out, damned spot; out, I say [. . .] who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?” she asks as she wanders through the halls of their castle near the close of the play (Act V, Scene I). Blood symbolizes the guilt that sits like a permanent stain on the conscience of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.