FREE ESSAY ON MACBETH BLOOD SYMABLISM

MACBETH BLOOD SYMABLISM

William Shakespeare's play Macbeth is about a struggle for power in Scotland. Macbeth, the
main character, gets prophecies from three witches about his future accomplishments that
will come to him. One of his prophecies is that Macbeth will become king, Macbeth hearing
this he becomes ambitious and later kills the current King Duncan, making himself the new
king. A tragic ending comes to Macbeth when the people leave him and his world collapses
around him. Blood is a recurring theme in this play; the theme of blood shows the setting
of the play at that time and the different moods and emotions acquired by the characters.
This idea of blood in the characters mind reverse from the beginning of the play to the
end. Blood traverses the play Macbeth.
King Duncan is the first to bring up blood in the play. Scotland at this time is fighting
Norway; Macbeth and his best friend, Banquo, lead the Scottish forces to victory. The
blood brought up by Duncan shows the honor and the heroic deeds done by Macbeth. What
bloody man is that? Duncan asked to which Malcolm tells him it is the sergeant who had
saved him and fought honorably. The sergeant shares his story of how Macbeth has fought
so honorably even outnumbered carv'd out his passage. This valiant story with the bloody
sergeant being weak from his war injuries enhances Macbeth's heroic appearance. Duncan's
response to the story shows his respect for Macbeth and realization of Macbeth's honor, O
valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman! Blood as it shows the good also shares the evil.
Lady Macbeth portrays the evil side that blood offers to contrast with the good. Lady
Macbeth hears from a messenger that the king shall arrive at the castle tonight. Lady
Macbeth is the evil one of the pair while Macbeth seems full of good in this world Lady
Macbeth sees opportunity. The only problem she finds wrong with herself is that she is a
woman; she wishes that her weak female body change, unsex me her, / and fill me, from the
crown to the toe, top-full/ of direst cruelty! With this change she wants her blood to
become thick, thick blood would help Lady Macbeth become strong and let her kill without
regret, make thick my blood, / stop up th' access and passage to remorse. Macbeth soon
finds out what the word blood is to him.
Macbeth after he has killed Duncan is in shock, his world of good has been shaken and the
blood within him is scared. The blood sets up in his mind a paranoid scene; him, being
afraid of every thing. Macbeth thinks what he has done is a terrible thing when he looks
at his hands, This is a sorry sight, although he has brought the daggers out with him
which scares Lady Macbeth. She tells Macbeth to go back and smear the sleepy grooms with
blood. Macbeth refuses to go because he is so shook up that he only can stare at his
hands. He wants his blood that is on his hands which is full of his sickness and his
nervousness off, Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood / clean from my hand?
Macbeth answers his own question saying that this sickness and nervousness on his hands
will not go away but it will make the ocean red with this blood, No; this my hand will
rather / the multitudinous seas incarnadine, / making the green one red. Lady Macbeth
return's to find her husband obsessed with the blood she has a different feeling about
the blood in this scene.
Lady Macbeth keeps her composer and puts on a fa?ade to the world. The blood on her seems
to not bother her, evil has filled within her and a little blood does not tamper with her
emotions. After she smears the guards with the king's blood, she returns to her husband
proclaiming him as a coward. She tells her husband that her hands are exactly the same
color as his but she is shamed that he has a white coward heart, My hands are of your
colour but I shame/ To wear a heart so white. She tells her husband that, A little water
clears us of this deed, and not to worry about anything. The morning after Duncan's death
shows many emotions showed through the word blood.
The thanes continue to mourn over the death of Duncan the day after looking for suspects.
Ross, a thane, observes the situation, it is dark and dreary the world seems to be in an
unnatural state. He says, Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man's act, / Threaten
his bloody stage, This blood stage is the earth that all of us humans act and live our
lives. Duncan's murder brings about this stage to become bloody and with some mans act
the heavens now appear to be angry. Later in this scene Ross tells Macduff, Is't known
who did this more than bloody deed? Ross says more than bloody deed because Duncan should
not have been murdered, which is unnatural, but he should have died naturally. 
Macbeth is crowned king, he then kills Banquo being afraid of what he shall do to
Macbeth, from there he becomes more paranoid and turns his blood to evil. Macbeth sees
Banquo and his gory locks at a banquet that Macbeth has after he knows that Banquo has
died. Lady Macbeth covers for Macbeth and dismisses all the guests, when Macbeth is alone
again he thinks about the events that have led up to that point, they say, blood will
have blood This blood will always seek out revenge on the murderer. Macbeth keeps secret
all of his bloody operations and then the bloody ghost arrived to confront him. Macbeth's
character has changed from scared to becoming fearless. His guilt was brought forth in
front of his guest. Brought forth / The secret'st man of blood. None of this shows any
remorse towards his killing though, he knows that he is already in too deep and that the
blood will keep on spilling no matter what. He is, blood/ stepp'd in so far that, should
I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er. Macbeth chooses to go on because
either way there is more blood to be spilled. Lady Macbeth's perspective on blood has
also reversed.
Lady Macbeth has been going crazy since Macbeth's character has been changing. As Lady
Macbeth sleep walks, her maid and a doctor observe her. She rubs her hands together as if
she was washing them. She continues to wash King Duncan's blood away until she reminds
herself of the bell she rang to summon her husband. Out damned spot! out, I say! When
Lady Macbeth thought of Macbeth being king she thought that no one could oppose his power
and killing Duncan wouldn't cause any harm to her. What need we fear who knows it, what
none can call our power to account? -Yet who would have thought the old man to have so
much blood in him? She although adds that Duncan has a lot of blood and this reminds her
of her guilt. This guilt plagues her and she is devastated in her dream when she realizes
that, Here's the smell of blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this
little hand. Lady Macbeth's perspective changed at this point on blood and she will later
commit suicide.