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Examples Of Blood Imagery In Macbeth

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When faced with the choice to obtain absolute power, most individuals would be tempted to take it. For some, serious actions such as murder may even be committed to acquire this power. Although one’s conscience typically prevents one’s ambition from getting out of hand, in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Macbeth’s desire for power is so potent that he eventually loses his sense of morality completely. Throughout the play, multiple characters spill copious amounts of blood all for similar reasons, and as they grow more power hungry they also lose their integrity. Shakespeare uses blood imagery to represent the guilt that stems from immoral actions in order to reveal the destructive nature of unchecked ambition.
Blood imagery represents the varied …show more content…

After Macbeth murders the holy King Duncan, a lord named Ross is discussing the aftermath with an old man. He proclaims, “Ah, good father,/Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act,/Threatens his bloody stage” (2.4.6-8). Macbeth killing King Duncan for the selfish purpose of taking his place as king is significant because in doing so, he disrupts the natural order of “the heavens”. This shows the magnitude of his actions, so great that they trigger a form of supernatural chaos in response. The “bloody stage” represents the ground, coated with shame from the bloody deeds that men commit on its land; Shakespeare also alludes to the actors on the “stage” performing Macbeth, who he uses as messengers between his text and the audience in order to transmit his message about humanity. As Macbeth's morality begins to tarnish, Scotland diminishes along with it. The destruction of Scotland is shown again when Macduff and Malcolm converse about Scotland’s plight under Macbeth’s oppressive rule. They characterize the country as “[sinking] beneath the yoke./ It [is] weep[ing], it [is] bleed[ing], and each new day a gash/ Is added to her wounds” (4.3.49-51). The personification of Scotland as “bleeding” conveys that Scotland is wounded by the horrific actions going on in her territory as a result of Macbeth’s ambition. Here, the word “gash” is used to depict how the people of Scotland are receiving gashes, or being murdered. Rather than availing Scotland, Macbeth uses his power to carry out his own ambitious agenda while disregarding the well-being of his own subjects. After Macduff declares that he will avenge everyone who was hurt by Macbeth, he discloses that Scotland suffers from having “an untitled tyrant bloody-sceptered” (4.3.122) and wonders “when shalt

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