Come, thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell / That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, / Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark / To cry, “Hold, hold!”
Act I, Scene 5 · Lady Macbeth
Context
Still calling on dark forces, Lady Macbeth asks for darkness itself to hide the murder she is about to help commit, preventing both her own sight and heaven's witness.
Analysis
Shakespeare personifies night and heaven as active observers—night must wrap itself in 'dunnest smoke' while heaven must be blocked from 'peeping' through. This frames the murder as a theatrical problem of visibility: the act is already decided, but it requires stagecraft (darkness as curtain) to proceed, as if moral wrong only exists when seen.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Lady Macbeth treats morality as a problem of perception rather than action—by asking darkness to hide the 'wound' from her own knife and heaven's gaze, she reveals her belief that sin is defined by being witnessed, not by being committed.