The Motifs Of Blood And Guilt In Macbeth By William Shakespeare

In Shakespeare's "Macbeth," the motif of blood serves as a powerful symbol throughout the play, representing guilt, remorse, and the irreversible consequences of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's actions. The presence of blood immediately following Duncan's murder and its recurring imagery late in the play encapsulate the psychological torment faced by the couple, signifying their moral corruption and the deterioration of their humanity. Following Duncan's murder, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are both overwhelmed by guilt and remorse. They become acutely aware of the blood on their hands, which metaphorically represents their responsibility for the heinous act they have committed.

Lady Macbeth begins to demonstrate her insaneness as the scene progresses. Lady Macbeth talks to herself as she continues her sleepwalk while she recalls the murder scene and says "Out damned spot out" (5.1.33). Lady Macbeth in this scene shows how lost she is in her hallucinations when she tries cleaning the blood, believing that if the blood is clean, so is her guilt. This scene also occurs when she says, "Here's the smell of the blood still, all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand,". This portrays how Lady Macbeth's belief of cleaning her hand will make her less guilty, except for the smell of the blood still in

She is caught saying “Yet who would have thought the old man to had so much blood in him?” (5.1, 34-36). In this quote Lady Macbeth expresses grief by using Duncan’s blood as imagery. Blood represents the stain on Lady Macbeth's conscience and the amount of blood parallels the amount of guilt that she is surprised she is feeling. Blood imagery here represents her conscience and expresses her feelings of guilt.

Using blood to represent guilt, Shakespeare depicts how Macbeth feels remorse through his violent attempts for power. After murdering Duncan, guilt overpowers Macbeth and he cannot make sense of his actions. As Lady Macbeth tries to convince him to forget about his actions, Macbeth worriedly trembles, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand” (Shakespeare 2.2.78-79). Macbeth’s actions show how blood symbolizes guilt because he cannot rid the guilt of taking Duncan’s blood out of his mind. Macbeth’s responsibility of protecting the king causes him to feel guilt for the act of violence

Macbeth kills someone and ends up feeling guilty. He wasn’t able to separate what was real life and what wasn’t after the murder. Lady Macbeth wasn’t so innocent either. She kept washing her hands trying to scrub the blood off. The blood on her hands was disguised as guilt.

In the play “Macbeth,” William Shakespeare incorporates the role of blood to illustrate the changes Macbeth’s character undertakes throughout the play. The imagery of blood is used to represent honor and leads to one’s guilty conscience. Although it sometimes accompanies honorable acts, throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare uses blood to portray guilt and the desire for power. The imagery of blood is repeatedly used to symbolize honor and guilt, throughout the play.

Blood, hallucinations, and sleep are important symbols and motifs in the play Macbeth. Blood is a symbol of the guilt and violence that permeate the play. The characters are haunted by the blood on their hands, and it serves as a reminder of the terrible acts they have committed. Blood also symbolizes the idea that violence begets violence, and the cycle of violence continues until it consumes the characters.

After the murder of both Duncan and Banquo, Macbeth expresses his guilt and resolves to do whatever is necessary to cover up his crimes, including more acts of violence. He tells Lady Macbeth, “...I am in blood/ Stepp’d in so far, that I should wade no more,/ Returning were as tedious as go o’er:/ Strange things I have in head, that will to hand,/ Which must be acted, ere they may be scann’d” (3.4.136-140). Macbeth uses a metaphor to compare his current situation to being submerged in blood, signifying that he has killed so many people, that he cannot possibly turn back and seek forgiveness. The burden of his heinous crimes haunts him and pushes him deeper into a state of instability, as seen through the blood imagery that symbolizes Macbeth’s immense guilt.

Closely followed by this treacherous act, they continue these bloody atrocities until it leads to their own deaths. From the perspective of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, blood symbolizes the heavy burden of guilt shown through the many crimes they committed, the high amount of significant references to blood, and the psychological struggles that they faced. Horrendously, Macbeth commits his first murderous crime in the second act. Leading up to this moment, the doubt, fear, and straining pressure offer no mercy to him.

As a result of her inability to escape the nightmare of immense guilt in sleeping or in wakefulness, Lady Macbeth crosses into the state of eternal sleep, death. In conclusion, William Shakespeare’s Macbeth demonstrates that a guilty conscience is a mind-probing enemy that can strike quietly and become a deadly, overpowering force that can subdue anyone with remorse. Through Lady Macbeth’s character transformation, the effects of a guilty conscience can thoroughly be seen. At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is an ambitious character that can repress her guilt to perform evil to a high extent.

Macbeth Literary Analysis In Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, blood is a reoccurring image that is used to add meaning to the plot, however, the meaning changes as the plot progresses. Blood, which commonly signifies the essence of life, can also be used to represent just the opposite. The image of blood is used heavily in Macbeth to represent bravery, guilt, and reflect changes in the characters throughout the play. It is first used to denote bravery when the captain dies defending Duncan’s son, the meaning then changes to guilt after Macbeth murders the king and feels eternal guilt for what he has done, and finally the image of blood reflects changes in the minds of the characters as their guilty consciences continues to haunt them.

In the beginning of the play, Macbeth, though hesitant, is manipulated by his wife, Lady Macbeth, into murdering the king, Duncan. After executing the murder, Macbeth feels as though he can no longer recognize himself and is horrified by what he did: “I am afraid to look at what I have done… Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” (2.2.66-79). The “blood” on Macbeth’s hands that not even “great Neptune’s ocean” could wash off, symbolizes the guilt weighing on his conscience. Though his guilt haunts him, Macbeth knows he must act innocent.

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth commits these murders against their allies so that the could be happy and gain power, but in the end, they had psychologically deteriorated and lost everything they had and once held dear to

Before killing Duncan Macbeth says ‘’I see thee still, And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, Which was not so before. There’s no such thing: It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes.’’ (www.shakespeare-navigators.com) showing that he is apprehensive towards killing Duncan. Blood symbolism also reveals the quilt that Macbeth suffers from for murdering

Murder's Impact: Empathy and Blood in Macbeth Throughout the play “Macbeth”, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s characters change as a result of murder and the trauma of bloodshed. Lady Macbeth thinks she can turn off her conscience and convince her husband to kill Duncan, which results in her crippling guilt and insanity. Macbeth feels no remorse of this kind, and instead fears the consequences, consistently referencing his safety. As the play progresses, we see examples of blood being used to communicate the guilt and remorse Lady Macbeth feels.