Act 2 Scene 2

Shakespeare uses many language techniques throughout ‘Macbeth’, one of these being personification. When Macbeth returns to Lady Macbeth, one of Lady Macbeth’s lines says “I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.” When Lady Macbeth talks about the owl’s screaming and cricket’s crying, she is using personification by giving the animals human characteristics that they wouldn’t have had before. This could also be seen as a metaphor. She used the animals and these descriptions of them to show that King Duncan was a ruler to all and that it will affect not just the humans.