How Is Blood Used In Macbeth

In William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, literary devices are used to invoke deeper thought. From the first act of the play, Macbeth uses chiasmus to introduce the tumultuous world of Macbeth. In a world of disorder, Shakespeare uses metaphors to provide insight on what the characters are thinking and feeling. The most powerful metaphor is blood, which recurs in most scenes of the play. In Macbeth, blood as a metaphor and bloody imagery to show guilt, define masculinity, and represent violence.
Shakespeare directly entwines blood with guilt. In Macbeth, guilty people are continuously trying to deny their wrongdoings. However, by doing so, their mental states begin to degrade. After Lady Macbeth’s involvement in the murder of the king's guards,

her hands are covered in blood, she believes this murder can just be put aside. However, soon after she starts to see the effects of the murder, “Here's the smell of the blood still: all the/perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little/hand. Oh, oh, oh!” (5.1 57-59). As Lady Macbeth goes crazy, she realizes that the blood can never truly go away. Even if the deed can be so much as washed away, it becomes part of her life. She becomes a killer even if she can’t admit it. But the vision of blood reminds her that she will never be clean, thus never ridding herself of her own guilt.
In Macbeth, most scenes discussing masculinism have the presence of blood.

Throughout the play, Lady Macbeth constantly mocks Macbeth’s manliness, or ability to commit murder and perform violent acts. Lady Macbeth berates Macbeth when he is afraid of the blood on his hands, referring to him as a coward and not being a true man. Lady Macbeth becomes so entangled with the struggle of what a true man really is, she wishes she could see for herself, “That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, / And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full / Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood. / Stop up the access and passage to remorse” (1.5 31-34). By making her blood thick, she could commit the foul deeds that she forces her husband to do for her. It was thought in Elizabethan times that poison makes the blood thick. By the usage of the word blood Lady Macbeth suggest that men are corrupted by violence and the need for power. And that all real men should feel the need for more, or to be the

strongest.
Lastly, the imagery of blood illustrates violence throughout the play.

In the beginning of the play, Duncan sees one of his captains coming back from the battlefield, “What a bloody man is that? He can report” (1.2.1). The captain that Duncan sees is drenched in blood. Once arriving the captain speaks of the brutality of Macbeth in battle. His descriptions are vivid, describing bloody swords, decapitations, and ferocious sword fighting. The time placement of the play is important because it helps understand what blood means. The play takes place in the mid-eleventh century, so it is important to remember that in these times most confrontations with enemies happened at close range, often involving a knife or a sword. These close range altercations always lead to large scale hemorrhaging and blood leaping from the man's

body.
Thus the bloodstains on the captain’s clothing becomes highly symbolic, revealing the gruesomeness he witnessed on the battlefield.
Ultimately, in world of chaos only one things remains constant, that blood is never unaccompanied. There is always death around, social standards or other emotions connected to it. It’s interesting how even in modern society we credit so many phrases to blood. Blood brothers, blue blood and bloodline being a notable few. So much of people do in life always comes back to within. Even if it may seem like a simplistic concept, everybody bleeds and everybody dies in the end.