You are here

All Site ContentMacbethAct 2Scene 3
Back to the Play
Biblical Reference: "great doom's image"
Context and Language Videos
Act 2,
Scene 3
Lines 68-77

An explanation of the phrase "great doom's image" in Act 2, Scene 3 of myShakespeare's Macbeth. 

myShakespeare | Macbeth 2.3 Biblical Reference: "Great doom's image"

Macduff

Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight
With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak;
See, and then speak yourselves.
[Exit Macbeth and Lennox]
                                                      Awake, awake.
Ring the alarum-bell. Murder and treason.
Banquo and Donalbain, Malcolm, awake.
Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit,
And look on death itself. Up, up, and see
The great doom's image. Malcolm, Banquo,
As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites,
To countenance this horror. Ring the bell.
Video Transcript: 

DAVINA:  Doomsday, or the Day of Judgement, is the end of the world; it’s when the souls of the dead rise out of their graves to be sent to either Heaven or Hell.

RALPH:  In these lines, Macduff compares Duncan's death to the end of the world.  He tells everybody to go see ‘the great doom’s image.’

DAVINA:  Since it’s early in the morning, he’s calling on everybody to rise from their sleep – which can look like death – to go and look at the doomsday image of the murdered Duncan. 

RALPH:  When Lady Macbeth arrives in response to the alarm bell, she refers to it as a trumpet.  This extends the doomsday metaphor. In the Book of Revelations, seven angels play trumpets to announce the end of the world.