A car crash, a birth, a murder; people tend to only see blood during very serious, defining moments of their lives such as these. Blood is as a vital to life as the air one breathes, and it is just as vital to Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. In this play the motif blood is used to establish and develop characters such as Macbeth as he goes from a virtuous warrior to a maleficent ruler as well as represent the guilt the Macbeth’s have from the murders that turned them sinister. Under pressure by three witches and his own wife, Macbeth sets out to kill the King of Scotland. After Macbeth has murdered sleeping Duncan, he returns to Lady Macbeth and asks her, “will all great Neptune’s water wash this blood; Clean from my hand?” (2.2.4) Macbeth …show more content…
Lady Macbeth, who has assisted her husband in taking many innocent men’s lives, is overcome with guilt. While she is able to “look like the innocent flower,” (1.5.74) during the day, at night the gentlewoman of Macbeth’s wife witnesses the sleep walking and talking which reveal Lady Macbeth’s true feelings. As Lady Macbeth tries to wash her hands of imaginary blood she cries, “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!” (5.1.35) Her doctor and gentlewoman watch as the murderer before them persistently tries to wash out the blood, and to no avail. It is not until the end of the scene that Lady macbeth finally realizes she will always carry this guilt with her, nothing can remove the blood from her hands, “all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” (5.1.50-52) Lady Macbeth committed many terrible deeds, including manipulating her husband and assisting in murder, despite trying desperately to be cold hearted, she is haunted by guilt and ultimately takes her own life. Lady Macbeth’s suicide, due to the weight of her terrible feats, supports the larger idea that good triumphs over
The longest running tradition in medicine, bloodletting, was a widely accepted practice with a three-thousand year-old history from the ancient Egyptians to the late 19th century. At that time, physicians thought that disease was a curse caused by the supernatural. It was a common idea that blood carried the vital force of the body and was the seat of the soul. Anything from body weaknesses to insanity were attributed to a defect in this vital fluid. Bloodletting was a method for balancing other fluids in the body and cleansing it of impurities. Shakespeare takes the same knowledge of blood and applies it to “Macbeth” in which the connotations not only foretell one’s glory but also one’s guilt.
William Shakespeare uses many techniques to liven the intensity, and the excitement in his plays. In the play of MacBeth, Shakespeare uses blood imagery to add a sense of fear, guilt, shame, insanity, and anger to the atmosphere. The use of blood imagery allows the audience to vision in their minds the crime scene where Duncan was murdered, as well as the scene where Lady MacBeth tries to cope with the consequences of her actions. The talk and sight of blood has a great impact on the strength and depth of the use of blood imagery.
Shakespeare used the image of blood to portray the central idea of Macbeth, King Duncan’s murder. The crime is foreshadowed in the second scene of the first act. The king shouts, “ What bloody man is that?” (I,ii,1) He is referring to a soldier coming in from battle. The soldier then explains to King Duncan of Macbeth’s heroics in battle. One assumes that Macbeth is bloody just like the soldier. The soldier describes Macbeth in action “Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel, / Which smoked with bloody execution.” (I,ii,17-18) This line connects Macbeth with killing, and hints at the future.
He no longer is the innocent soldier he once way, he now has “unclean hands”. Lady Macbeth however, assumes his innocence. She claims she cannot murder Duncan herself because Duncan looks to much like her sleeping father. She is all words and no actions. Macbeth is devoid of any human emotions as the play goes on, and Lady Macbeth assumes the emotional role. Lady Macbeth begins to have dreams in which she cannot get the blood off her hands, and ultimately commits suicide from guilt of her actions. This breakdown of Lady Macbeth really highlights how inhuman the murder of Duncan has made Macbeth.
Lady Macbeth appears to think that the murder wasn’t something to feel guilty about, and even if it was, a few good deeds would fix the mark of their souls. However, in her sleepwalking episode, her true feelings appear. She mindlessly rubs her hands and cries in her haze, “Here’s the smell of blood still. All/ the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little /hand. ”(V.i.53-55).
Shakespeare uses the symbol of blood in MacBeth to represent treason, guilt, murder and death. These ideas are constant throughout the book. There are many examples of blood representing these three ideas in the book.
When she learns Macbeth has been given a fortune of been given thane of cawdor then king and half the prophecy has become true, she knows if Macbeth is king she will be queen. She is willing to do anything to get it. On the night that Macbeth and lady macbeth have planned to kill Duncan. Macbeth is having second thoughts but Lady Macbeth is not letting him back down by saying he is a coward and she would do it if she was in his place by saying ”When you durst do it, then you are a man. And to be more than what you were you would be so much more than a man”. Macbeth is a hearty warrior and feels as though he has to prove to Lady Macbeth he is a man and he is not a coward. Therefore due to Lady Macbeths manipulation Macbeth murders Duncan. On Macbeths return Lady Macbeth is happy but Macbeth is Filled with regret Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to forget what happened “ A little water clears us of this deed”. Which is Ironique as At the end of the play Lady Macbeth has been in the anxiety and it has finally eaten away at her and she has gone mad and keeps seeing blood on her hands. “Out damned spot out, I say !” which in turn leads to her own suicide and portrays Lady Macbeth as taking her fate into her own hands in an evil manner, However the guilt from doing the evil task highlighted Lady Macbeth was not as manly as she wanted to be and she still had feelings, showing the audience by her suicide as an act showing she was unable to withstand the guilt of being queen knowing the great evil she had to do to get
Out, I say” (5.1.25). Lady Macbeth has finally recognized that although she is able to wash away the blood on her hands, she isn’t able to wash it away from her conscience. She used to scorn Macbeth for having one, but now knows how it feels since it has finally caught up with her. The guilt she encounters comes so quickly that she isn’t able to deal with it much longer. A little later on in this act, the audience finds out that “the queen is dead” (5.5.17).
Blood is essential to every human beings survival. It is a fluid circulating throughout the body that carries nutrients and oxygen to the tissues in exchange for life and if this was somehow lost then the life would also be lost. It represents life, death, and injury. It is an essential part of life. Without it, we would not live. As a symbol and major theme in Macbeth, Blood is used most often to represent injury and death, but also life. In Macbeth, he uses blood to represents impurity. Shakespeare often accompanies the image of water with the image of blood. The water represents cleansing and purity.
“.blood will have blood.” , Macbeth is a well known book written by Shakespeare. In it, a once loyal soldier to the king of Scotland starts to seek a way for him to get the crown for himself. In Macbeth, William Shakespeare uses the imagery of blood to represent the guilt of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, demonstrating the feeling of guilt has consequences of severe punishments. The imagery of blood shows Lady Macbeth wants to get rid of her guilt.
The seventeenth-century play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, employs blood as a powerful symbol to amplify the tragic nature of the work. Prior to, and immediately following Duncan’s death, blood magnifies the treachery of Macbeth’s murderous act. Throughout the play, Blood constantly reminds the audience of the ruthless means the Macbeths implement to gain the crown. In the culmination of the play, blood symbolizes the irreconcilable guilt that will haunt the Macbeths for the duration of their lives. Blood’s ubiquitous symbolism emphasizes the constant guilt felt by the Macbeths in their tragic pursuit of the monarchy.
There are a variety of fluids in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth such as milk, water and blood. Milk quenches one’s thirst, whereas blood pours out of a person. Water is used to wash stains away, whereas blood can taint a person. The blood image is very potent throughout Macbeth and reinforces the major themes of bravery, guilt, and violence evoked by the three witches.
The significance of blood in Macbeth changes frequently from honour to betrayal, to guilt and then back to honour again when Macduff kills Macbeth. Also, the blood was used to represent good and evil. When good people were mentioned like Malcolm or Duncan, it was used it was used for good, to show bravery and heroic deeds. When bad people were mentioned like Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, it was used for evil things like murder, and betrayal. It gave a good understanding of the character’s personalities, and contributed to the richness and excitement of the play.
While talking to himself about possibly murdering King Duncan, Macbeth notes that if “bloody instructions” are taught, they will only return to harm those who taught them” (I.vii.9). Here, blood is used in a negative tone, as it foreshadows the harm that would to come to Macbeth if he were to kill King Duncan. Blood continues to have a negative connotation as the play continues. When Macbeth sees the dagger before him, he turns away and then turns back towards the dagger to test its legitimacy. When the dagger is still there, he notes that there are “gouts of blood” on the handle and on the blade “which was not so before” (II.i.47-48). This sudden appearance of blood mirrors the change in Macbeth’s character and the connotation of blood throughout the play. Both begin with a sense of positivity and heroism, but as the play progresses they turn into more negative and murderous beings. Because the blood on the dagger has a dark and deadly quality to it, Macbeth turns to violence in order to move up the hierarchical ranking, despite having knowledge of the repercussions of committing regicide. The shift in the connotation of blood becomes the most clear after Macbeth kills King Duncan. Once he committed the act, Macbeth questions if he will ever be able to truly wash King Duncan’s blood “clean from my hand” (II.ii.64). The blood is used as a foil for the guilt Macbeth feels after murdering King Duncan; even though he may be able to wash the physical blood away, his hands are forever dirty with the murder of King
... in him but in her. He hallucinates before the murder but she suffers from the mental disorders afterwards. He stands helpless with his bloody hands crying all Neptune's ocean won't clear the guilt from his hands while she comforts him saying that a few drops of water would clear them of their deed. Later. She is the one who washes her hand for quarter of an hour to get rid of the bloodstain. What Macbeth fears to happen to him happens to her. She becomes "all remorse, and he all defiance." In fact the fall of lady Macbeth and her death paves the way to the fall of Macbeth and his death.