Come, seeling night, / Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, / And with thy bloody and invisible hand / Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond / Which keeps me pale!—
Act III, Scene 2 · Macbeth
Context
Macbeth invokes night as he hints to Lady Macbeth that he has planned Banquo's murder. He calls on darkness to hide the coming crime and release him from fear.
Analysis
Macbeth personifies night as an active accomplice with hands that can 'cancel and tear,' borrowing the language of legal contracts ('bond') to imagine guilt as a document that can be physically destroyed. The verb 'seeling'—a falconry term for stitching a hawk's eyes shut—turns blindness into something done deliberately and violently, not just the absence of light. This reveals Macbeth now seeks not merely cover for his crimes but the total erasure of moral sight itself.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Macbeth's relationship to evil has shifted from reluctant action to active invitation—here he doesn't just use darkness, he summons it as a partner and asks it to destroy his conscience entirely.