Rivera Arkan Mrs. Favazza AP Literature and Composition 14 Mar 2022 Macbeth: A Bloody Literary Analysis William Shakespeare’s 1606 play “Macbeth”, follows the protagonist and tragic hero, Macbeth, through his rise and fall from power. He is easily influenced by the words of the three witches, who tell him he will be king, and he begins his journey for the crown. Macbeth’s tragic flaw of ambition is what ultimately leads to his drastic actions to secure the throne for himself and attempt to maintain it. Throughout the play, he murders various people with his wife, Lady Macbeth, as an accomplice. The play touches heavily on the topic of guilt, with blood specifically being used as a symbol for guilt. Shakespeare uses blood as a symbol in both …show more content…
In Act I, when she hears about the witches telling Macbeth he will be king, she enters a soliloquy about changing herself to become less remorseful in order to be strong enough to help Macbeth kill the king. In the soliloquy, she wishes on evil spirits, saying, “Make thick my blood;/ Stop up th’access and passage to remorse,” (Shakespeare I.v.31). This initially makes her seem relatively heartless, going full in on the murder of the beloved king of Scotland and actually pushing Macbeth to go forward with his thoughts. In this case, guilt is represented by blood, but she is actively wishing to not feel guilty. She is presented as rational and very logical in her plan to get Macbeth to become King and guilt does not interfere with that. Her relationship with guilt and her lack of it continues on until the final Act where Lady Macbeth has a jarring interaction with blood. By the beginning of Act V, Lady Macbeth has deteriorated to the point where she is bed bound. She is shocked as Macbeth’s murder spree has spread to Macduff’s wife and children, who were all deemed threats in Macbeth’s eyes. This causes her to fall mentally ill and she must be cared for by a doctor. While she is bedridden, she begins sleepwalking and sleeptalking her guilt for the actions Macbeth has …show more content…
In Rupert Goold’s adaptation, he stays very close to the original play while still using his own creative liberties. For example, in Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy in Act I, she is depicted essentially the same as she is in the play, saying “Make thick my blood”(3:10-3:20). She seems very powerful and has the demeanor of someone yearning for something, which pairs well with her seemingly guiltess attitude towards planning to kill the king. The eagerness in her tone is evident and it all ties to her speech, wishing to have no remorse for what she wants. This characterizes her how the play does and it is related to blood being symbolic for guilt since she wishes it away and is guiltless. Along with this, in the scene of her sleepwalking she is also very similarly depicted. She is distraught, and as she comes up to a sink, she takes out what appears to be a chemical and pours it on her hands, continuing the hand washing motions (1:10-1:26). This is evidently more intense than what the original play had written since she physically harms herself. Here, the blood is not visible to the audience, just like it is not visible to the other characters. This is not fully showing blood as a visual symbol, but she repeatedly discusses washing her hands from the blood on them, so it still serves its purpose as a symbol. The scene is also very intense and gets the point across. Although the
Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth see more and more imaginary blood as the time goes on in the play, they feel guilty for what they have done and the blood is a
In Act 5 we can see Lady Macbeth plagued by sleepwalking fits. During these fits doctors observe her washing her hands from blood, yet somehow no amount of scrubbing can wash it off, implying that no matter how normal she acts, she cannot get rid of the guilt that engulfs her. These actions foreshadow what she says earlier in the play when after Macbeth has just killed Duncan. Macbeth was feeling an incredible amount of guilt and Lady Macbeth implies that all he needed to do was wash his hands and cleanse himself from his guilt, foreshadowing Lady Macbeth not being able to scrub off her guilt. These 2 actions can be interpreted as Lady Macbeth feeling assertive and dominant but soon after descending back into madness as her guilt catches up
Firstly Macbeth said to Lady Macbeth when he told her that he is planning a scheme: "I am in blood / Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er" (3.4.135-136). Macbeth has committed too much crime that trying to find a way to stop and redeem himself will be just as hard as continue on his path of killing and crimes. In this scene blood represent guilt and violence.
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.
Through the eyes of Macbeth, blood is a stain of guilt that one can not remove. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the motif of blood is symbolic of fear, guilt, power and represents the theme, ambition kills. The motif of blood reoccurs continuously in Shakespear’s Macbeth, but does not lose its importance. As the play becomes more somber and gruesome, blood is mentioned more frequently.
As Lady Macbeth’s gentlewoman consults a doctor, they observe her diminishing mental state as she hallucinates that “hands [will] [never] be clean,” and that “the smell of the blood” will not be “[sweetened]” by any perfume (5.1.45, 53-54 ). Here, the author uses the motif of blood to represent guilt. Lady Macbeth’s struggle to remove the blood on her hands shows her undying guilt which she cannot erase despite countless trials. This is further proven when she says the smell of blood lingers and cannot be sweetened, meaning that her action cannot be forgiven by her guilt. Her mental state weakens due to this reason and is shown to be tormented by her hallucinations rather than being content with her desired queenship.
We see this through the usage of the motif of blood in the play and how it represents different things as the play progresses- originally it is used as a symbol of chivalrous behaviour. We see this when Macbeth is described to have ‘’unseamed him from the nave to th’ chaps’’; demonstrating Macbeth’s heroic nature. However, it eventually changes to become a symbol of violence and guilt, completely changing from its former symbolic
He shows that within every man is a destructive nature and if it’s to be followed, it will lead to their demise. “Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him?” (Shakespeare 170). Once again, Shakespeare symbolizes blood as the consequences that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth face. Lady Macbeth had stated this whilst sleepwalking and trying to rub her hands clean from blood.
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.
In my opinion, blood symbolize a contradiction in the play. Shakespeare presented it by depicting how the entanglement in Macbeth’ mind when he killed people and how the honor he got because of his slaughter, his pst and his outcome. In Act 1, scene 2. Macbeth was evaluated by the Captain ‘For brave Macbeth.
Lady Macbeth’s experiences with blood and violence have been from the perspective of a woman. The audience first see Lady Macbeth like this in act two when she faints at the new about the death of Duncan. Since Macbeth is a soldier and has faces blood and had been around it lots of time it doesn't really affect
Blood is something most people see as gruesome and disturbing, and not something ordinary people enjoy to be in the presence of. In the play Macbeth, the playwright William Shakespeare uses the motif of blood to expose a character's thoughts and personality. Blood is an important motif constantly shown throughout the play. Macbeth, the main character, thinks he can advance to the throne without any consequences. Blood exemplifies the guilt he is now stuck with, and due to Macbeth's excessive ambition, and overwhelming guilt, he is now faced with the consequences.
Macbeth went through so much pressure to do the crime he later regretted and suffered and battles with himself and his paranoia. Lady Macbeth only saw the effects of blood visually she did not see how the blood stain was eating Macbeth from the inside. Once again Lady Macbeth is pushing Macbeth to forget about what happened and move on, the murder does not affect Lady Macbeth but the way Macbeth is acting shows that he was never ready to commit this
Act 5, scene 1 of Macbeth covers the downfall of Lady Macbeth, showing how affected she is by the work her husband and herself have done. The scene consists of a doctor and gentlewoman that are brought into the play to help Lady Macbeth, who see her get up out of bed and start sleepwalking; revealing many hideous truths that they did not know about. Throughout the scene, the uses of imagery and symbols are brought in, going in depth about certain characters. To begin with, blood imagery is exemplified in the scene as Lady Macbeth gets up (sleepwalking and not in sense) and addresses her problem, which is the stain of blood on her hands. Lady
Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth” explores a man’s fall from morality through committing the act of regicide, as well as ideas of guilt, greed and corruption. A motif of blood is used throughout the play to aid Shakespeare’s character development of Macbeth and it also facilitates further exploration of the figurative moral compass and culpability. Blood is used as a symbol and physical manifestation of guilt within characters throughout the play. Firstly, Shakespeare uses the motif of blood to emphasise the moral deterioration of Macbeth 's character.