[Muir analyzes various image patterns in Macbeth . The first pattern the critic examines is that of babies and breast-feeding. According to Muir, infants symbolize pity throughout the play, and breast-milk represents "humanity, tenderness, sympathy, natural human feelings, [and] the sense of kinship, all of which have been outraged by the murderers. "Another group of images focuses on sickness and medicine, all of which occur, significantly, in the last three acts of the play, after Macbeth has ascended the throne. Images of sickness, the critic contends. signify the "disease of tyranny" which has infected Scotland, and which can only be cured by "bleeding or purgation. " Muir also observes a contrast between the powers of light and darkness in Macbeth. Darkness pervades all the action in Macbeth 's world, whereas light manifests itself in the scenes.....
