Blood And Guilt In Macbeth

     The second type of literary device that Shakespeare uses in Macbeth is symbolism. The predominant symbol is blood and is used as an effective method to describe the theme of the play. Not only does blood symbolize bravery, it is also a means of showing treachery and treason and probably most importantly, guilt. One example of bravery occurs when the captain says, "For brave Macbeth—well he deserves that name--/Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel,/Which smoked with bloody execution"(1.2.16-18). Soon after this blood changes into a representation of treachery and treason. Lady Macbeth asks the spirits to "Make thick my blood,/ Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse" (1.5. 43-44). She asks the spirits to take away compassion and make her remorseless for the actions she is about to take. Also, when Ross asks, "Is’t known who did this more than bloody deed?" (2.4.22), he tries to figure out who performed the disloyal act of murdering the king. Blood is also used many times to express the guilt-ridden consciences of the characters. For instance, Macbeth says, "What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine own eyes!/ Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash the blood/ Clean from my hand?" (2.3.58-60). Macbeth obviously feels guilty for killing Duncan in cold blood. Later in the play, Lady Macbeth

An ocean represents purity and life, Macbeth expresses how even an entire ocean could not wash his hands clean from the foul deed he had committed. In turn, the ocean would turn into blood. Shakespeare uses blood to symbolize Macbeth’s guilt and horror over his crimes. Shakespeare also uses blood to symbolize Macbeth’s acceptance

The violence and the blood that results are important symbols in Shakespeare's Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The blood imagery for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is guilty, murder, remouse and power. It shows Macbeth had killed King Duncan, Banquo and the Guards to get what he want for him to be a king in Shakespeare. Lady Macbeth

When Macbeth imagines that there is a bloody dagger before him even before he is about to kill Duncan, it represents his guilt even before he has committed any crimes. Macbeth has planned the entire act of killing Duncan and as he walks to Duncan's room, he hallucinates that there is a bloody dagger sitting before him, inviting him to kill Duncan. This bloody dagger is a window to Macbeth's future of guilt after killing the king. Even before Macbeth has done a deed he feels guilty for what he is about to do. This dagger is there as a warning for what is to come in his future if he does kill the king.

William Shakespeare wove many motifs like blood into his play Macbeth, written in 1606. These motifs serve to reveal many different aspects of the plot, characters, and themes. The Blood motif is often used throughout the play to symbolize guilt, or the lack of it. The two main characters, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are driven by ambition to commit evil actions including murder. Lady Macbeth plots to have her husband murder king Duncan of Scotland, so that Macbeth can take the throne. But, with all the murder committed in the play comes blood, and furthermore the feeling of guilt eventually corrupts the characters. It is important to realize in Macbeth, blood is not just a fluid that circulates in the vascular system of humans, but is as well used to symbolize potential occurrences in the future and express a deeper meaning than what can be physically seen. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the blood motif is used to symbolize the feeling of guilt as well as a dark time throughout the play.

Macbeth has many symbols throughout the entire book. Some symbols include water, blood, and the three witches. Water is an symbol because Macbeth has just murdered Duncan while he was asleep in his chambers, and when he leaves his chambers he still has Duncan's blood on his hands and needs to wash it off, as he says “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” (2.2.60-61). Macbeth is questioning if Neptune’s ocean would provide enough water to wash Duncan’s blood from his hands. He needs the water to purify him of his horrible deed that he has done. Macbeth is very skeptical about whether or not that all off the water in the world would be enough for him to wash all his horrible deeds. Water is symbolizing cleanliness and purity. “Here's the smell of blood still. All perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." (5.1.32-33). Lady Macbeth and Macbeth both keep coming back and referring to when they killed Duncan and the blood on their hands although they could wash it all off. Although Macbeth is the one that committed the crime, it still holds on to Lady Macbeth like perfume can. The two of them have are having guilt trips to killing Duncan. Pretty Little Liars does not have much symboles but one symbol that is in the very beginning of the book was when the 4 girls made a memorial for Alison and the memorial had 5 statues on it, each representing the girls. That

Diction and imagery play large roles in Macbeth. Shakespeare's use of these devices create a better image in the mind of the audience and set the stage for foreshadowing. In the scene before Duncan's murder in Macbeth, Shakespeare uses diction and imagery to establish Macbeth's guilty, anxious frame of mind. Shakespeare uses imagery as soon as the passage begins by writing, "Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand," (II.i.1-2).

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, there are many impressive literary devices that he so brilliantly uses. Symbolism as one of the major literary devices that can reveal another or deeper meaning of an object, person or situation is used frequently in the play for certain. During numerous symbols, there are three important groups that are used most regularly. These are blood, hand and animals, which all have different representations. Those three symbols together add a certain value to the work and enrich the play considerably.

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.

The quote, "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood/Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather/The multitudinous seas incarnadine,/Making the green one red." (2.2.57-60) demonstrate the guilt Macbeth has after killing King Duncan. He starts to feel pity for Duncan; however, the deed has been committed and now there's no going back. The idea of crime has transformed his Macbeth soul to sinful and immoral. His partner in crime, Lady Macbeth, at first was not traumatized by the execution until later on when her inner spirit confronts her with all her wrongdoings and the bloodshed of Duncan."Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two. Why, then, 'tis/ time to do 't. Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier,/ and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none/ can call our power to account?—Yet who would have/ thought the old man to have had so much blood in him." (5.1.30-35) As she speaks to herself in this line she envisions a bit of everything she's done. Unwillingly,

He imagines that all of the water from the ocean could not clean his hands of the burden of guilt that weighed so heavily on his tormented mind. He pictures Duncan’s blood staining the entire ocean red. This passage illustrates that the act of murder has changed Macbeth's character. No longer does the blood suggest an image of ambition; it now symbolizes guilt and remorse. The passage also shows how no amount of water could clean Macbeth’s guilty conscience. Again, blood is referred to when Malcolm and Donalbain are discussing what to do. Malcolm says: "there's daggers in men's smiles: the nearer in blood,/ the nearer bloody." (II,iii, 139-140), meaning that their closest relatives are likely to kill them. Again, blood is being used to describe treason, murder, and

Symbolism is the usage of symbols that represent ideas. In Shakespeare’s works, he uses symbolism to display the overall character development in his writings. For example, Shakespeare’s Macbeth contain a variety of symbolism used to show the changes within Macbeth in the play. Many of the symbolism depict characters’ actions, emotions and events that have happened previously in the play. Shakespeare’s

The meaning of this symbol is well received in that Macbeth, now, has no intention of killing anyone and is honestly quite frightened by the thought of it. However, the symbol quickly shifts its meaning by the middle of play. After Macbeth and Lady Macbeth go through with

William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth tells the story of a brave Scottish general named Macbeth, and how a prophecy told by three witches gave him enough courage to commit several murders all in the sake of his political ambition. In various scenes throughout the play we see guilt as a recurring theme affecting both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. In Act 2, scene 2—directly after the murder of King Duncan—Macbeth stumbles in with bloody hands and clear reaction of guilt as he says “What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes. Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” (2.2.62-64). Shakespeare uses a few literary devices in this scene to convey Macbeth’s feeling of guilt. Firstly, he uses the metaphor that these hands in front of him will pluck out his eyes. He does not mean this literally but instead that he will go blind from looking at them much longer because they are covered in blood. Shakespeare then goes on to use exaggeration with the phrase “will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” meaning that it would take a great ocean of the Roman god of the sea Neptune to wash the blood from his hand, not just any lake. Lastly Shakespeare uses a rhetorical question to emphasize the magnitude of guilt Macbeth is feeling. Macbeth asks himself if the whole ocean will wash the blood clean from his hands, and clearly it will not. This is because the blood on his hands is no only physical but metaphorical. Additionally there is the idea that he cannot wash this guilt away. In the next line Macbeth realizes that he cannot simply wash the blood away in the ocean and that if he did the “multitudinous seas” would “incarnadine, making the green one red” (2.2.65-66). Essentially there is so much metaphorical blood on the hands of Macbeth that if he were to wash them in the ocean, it would turn the

Macbeth fights for both the honor of himself and his king. The image of a sword that is "smoked" with blood shows that Macbeth bravely was very successful in battle. The blood on his sword represents all the people he bravely killed in battle for the protection of his king. Macbeth was also "disdaining fortune", he believed that he would not die unless fate decided he should. So in battle he fought to his full potential and was not afraid of death.