that the crime he has committed cannot be undone and is unforgivable. Macbeth is feeling guilty and is now facing a moral dilemma over the fact that he has killed Duncan. A second blood image in the play also helps to convey moral atmosphere. At the end of the play just before Macbeth is murdered by Macduff, Macbeth says:.
Of all men else I have avoided thee:.
But get thee back, my soul is too much charg"d.
With blood of thine already. (5.8, 4-6).
Macbeth is conveying to Macduff that he is feeling remorseful and wishes to avoid further murder. He knows that what he has done is wrong and he is implying that he is capable of murdering Macduff as well. In addition, he believes that he is already a murderer for killing Duncan and Banquo. This image is conveying the moral atmosphere that Macbeth understands what he did is wrong. These three images prove that images do help to achieve moral atmosphere.
Secondly, images help to convey the mental atmosphere of a work. Right before the murder of Duncan, Macbeth begins to show that he is becoming mentally ill. In the dagger soliloquy, evidence of his mental illness is revealed through Macbeth's description of his hallucinations. The image of blood is apparent in the soliloquy when he states:.
Mine eyes are made the fools o" the other senses,.
Or else worth all the rest: I see thee still;.
Ane on thy blade and dudgeon, gouts of blood,.
Which was not so before. There's no such thing:.
It is the bloody business which informs.
Thus to mine eyes. (2.1, 44-49).
Macbeth realizes that the blood he is seeing is not there. He is beginning to understand that he is haunted by images of blood as a result of killing Duncan; he is losing his hold on reality. Another example of how imagery helps create mental atmosphere, is just before the murder of Banquo at the Macbeth castle (Inverness) when Macbeth says to his wife, "O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife".
