Shakespeare's use of weather as a symbolic event in Macbeth

Weather Symbolism in Macbeth In William Shakespeare's Macbeth, the Scottish general Macbeth is told prophesies by three witches. These prophecies and encouragement from his scheming wife leads him to go through with terrible acts of murder in his attempts to disrupt the chain of being. Throughout the play when Macbeth is doing these things, chaotic weather is used as an expression that reflects unnaturalness in the universe and disruption of the chain of being. The …

…the throne after him. Because of Macbeth's failure, it never rained that night. Chaotic weather in Macbeth is clearly a sign of unnatural events and breaking in the chain of being. The witches, Macbeth's murders, and the times when Macbeth was being given knowledge that he should not have had, were all marked with this type of weather. Shakespeare had obviously planned this and did a very good job of placing it throughout the play.