Images and Imagery of Blood in Shakespeare's Macbeth

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Macbeth: Image of Blood

The tragedy of Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, includes many images the most notable of which is blood. The recurring image of blood appears to be a vessel through which the audience learns more about the character of the main characters, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

Lady Macbeth is most noticeably affected by the image of blood; she began making references to it even before the murder of Duncan. In her pleading to the spirits, Lady Macbeth prays, "Make thick my blood" (I.v.43) in order that she may not feel any "remorse" for the course of action she plans for her husband and herself. Lady Macbeth sees her thin blood as a weakness in her character and wishes it to be richer (thicker) with the qualities of courage, bravery and even emotional strength, a man's strength. For a time, these demands seem as if they have actually been answered. Not even after the murder of Duncan or Banquo does she lose her composure. In fact, Lady Macbeth actually keeps her husband from losing his mind! Eventually, though, her granted desire appears to wear off and her naturally thin blood again replaces the tainted blood coursing through her veins, figuratively speaking. Then the pressure of her guilty conscious drives her insane. In a sleepwalking state, Lady Macbeth expresses her guilty feelings:

Out, damned spot! Out I say! One: Two:

why, then 'tistime to do't. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord,

fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who

knows it, when none can call our pow'r ...

... middle of paper ...

...cance cannot be ignored. The word "blood" simply would not be used in such unlikely places as "bleeding Scotland," for instance, without a specific purpose. Shakespeare may have been trying to show us the fine line between life and death, which can both be signified with the blood image!

WORKS CITED

Jorgensen, Paul A. William Shakespeare: The Tragedies. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1985.

Kott, Jan. Shakespeare Our Contemporary. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1994.

Rackin, Phyllis. Shakespeare's Tragedies. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1988.

Waith, Eugene M. Shakespeare The Histories. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1985.

Webster, Margaret. Shakespeare Without Tears. Greenwich: Fawcett Publications, Inc., 1996.

Wells, Stanley. SHAKESPEARE The Writer and his Work. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988.

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