Macbeth Blood Analysis

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Considered to be Shakespeare’s bloodiest work, Macbeth portrays its plot perfectly: Macbeth’s bloody rise to power and his tragic downfall. Throughout the play, the symbolism of blood advances this plot. Macbeth is a brave soldier without flaw, but he soon becomes consumed with achieving his “fated” future. From the moment Macbeth murdered Duncan, the symbolism of blood represents throughout the play his conscience, his dynamic character change, and his and Lady Macbeth’s guilt. Both before and after murdering Duncan, Macbeth and his conscience speak boldly. Entering the scene where Macbeth and Lady Macbeth will murder Duncan, we see firsthand his true struggle within himself. Despite finding his own thoughts sickening when he desires to kill Duncan after learning of the prophecy, we truly see his conscience in Act II. Before the murder, Macbeth imagines a bloody dagger, representing his conscience. Macbeth says, “There’s no such thing: It is the bloody business which informs/ Thus to mine eyes” (2.1.47-48). Following through with …show more content…

UK Essays website states, “Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s guilt caused them to act differently and become different people” (“The Symbols in Macbeth”). Macbeth’s guilt needs to be hidden, pretending he is innocent until his actions numb inside of him. In Act III, Macbeth says, “I am in blood/ Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more/ Returning were as tedious as go o’er” (3.4.137). Lady Macbeth herself is troubled by her actions. Lady Macbeth is a wife who will stop at nothing to get her husband where he is meant to be. Her plead to become “sexless” in Act I does not follow her through the play, but instead causes her deep fear. In Lady Macbeth’s last days, she is sleepwalking around the castle admitting her and her husband’s sins while trying to “rub away the blood” off her hands before she commits

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