The Motif Of Macbeth By William Shakespeare

     In his masterpiece Macbeth, William Shakespeare employs many motifs, but none more often than blood and water. The play includes many images of blood and water to show the characters' attitudes toward their own development of guilt. Both motifs mature and change in their meaning along with the setting and mood of the play. “Without an understanding of the blood and water symbolism, the play cannot be completely understood”(Scott 14). Blood symbolizes honor, treachery, and guilt. Water, in contrast, symbolizes cleanliness and purity of the soul, as though all it takes is water to wash guilt away.

     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

Macbeth is the ultimate story of a fight between the forces of good and evil. It tells the tale of a tragic hero whose quest for power leads to his ultimate downfall. Macbeth starts out as an honorable warrior but changes when his ambition becomes uncontrollable. As he becomes increasingly paranoid, Macbeth uses violent means to eliminate threats to his Scottish throne. As the play progresses, blood continuously plays a part in the events as the murders become more frequent. William Shakespeare, the author of Macbeth, uses blood imagery to develop Macbeth’s character, create a foil in between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and to symbolize honor and guilt.

William Shakespeare enhances his play, Macbeth, by including a variety of motifs. “In a literary work, a motif can be seen as an image, sound, action or other figures that have a symbolic significance and contributes toward the development of theme,” (Literarydevices.net). In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses sleep, blood, hallucination, darkness and many other motifs to show importance in the play. Beginning with the battle between the Scots and the Norwegian invaders, blood is one of the most significant motifs that are presented in Macbeth. Shakespeare uses blood to symbolize power, courage and heroism as well as, death, cruelty and guilt.

The story illustrates the act of murder has changed Macbeth’s character. But it no longer does the blood connote an image of ambition; it now symbolizes guilt, remorse, and an entry into the gates of hell from which no one can return. Macbeth laments that not even all the water in the sink will wash the blood off his hands, he is beginning to realize the immensity of his crime, and that he has done something truly evil. Macbeth say, “It will have blood,they say. Blood will have blood./ By magot pies and choughs and rooks brought forth/ The secret’st man of blood./ What is the night? (Act III, Scene 4, Lines 122-126). The imagined blood haunts both characters, following them until their death.

The role that blood plays in Macbeth, particularly immediately following Duncan’s murder and later in the play. Blood symbolize fear and guilt for Macbeth and his wife. Not until after the murder of Duncan that the guilt beings to grow.

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.

A motif is a repeating symbol that takes on a figurative meaning. A motif can be an object, a color, the weather, or even an idea or a concept. Motifs are usually used to establish a certain mood or a theme, and they have a symbolic meaning. For example, in a fairy tale, some motifs would be: the handsome prince, the wicked witch, talking animals, and magic fairies. Another example would be the song “Beasts of England” in Animal Farm by George Orwell, and it is a motif that mainly serves as propaganda to the animals. In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, motifs are seen all throughout the book, like the motif of blood and how it represents guilt. The motifs of blood, sleep, and birds affect the character development and relationship of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

The motif for this act is blood because there is the killing of Duncan. The bloody guilt of Duncan is shown throughout the thesis.The quote shows when Macbeth is thinking of Duncan’s funeral after he killed him, ”Outran the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan”Shakespeare(2.3.127). Macbeth shed a lot of blood through the thesis as he kills the king, Duncan, and the guards.Lady Macbeth tries to get rid of the murder weapons so she is acting like death is just an act for her and she doesn’t really care who dies,”Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead”Shakespeare(2.2.68).Lady Macbeth is experienced on how to kill Duncan and cover up the murder so she has done something that has killed people or she is a psychopath.

In literature, one might notice certain images, objects, or ideas recurring throughout the piece. These are called motifs, and unsurprisingly, many motifs are present in the works of William Shakespeare. There are many themes that Shakespeare conveys through motif in his play Macbeth. One of these is that breaking the Great Chain of Being results in misery and disorder, but the natural order tends to eventually recover. Another is that violence is morally ambiguous and can be good or evil depending only on who the violence affects. Finally, Shakespeare shows that what one perceives as reality is not necessarily reality, especially under the effects of guilt and or paranoia. From reading Macbeth, one can easily pick up on these messages:

The theme is shown several times throughout the play the first time it is in Act 2 when Macbeth sees a dagger and says “I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible. To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but. A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?” (Act 2, Scene 1). This quote shows the theme through his hallucination of the dagger right before he kills King Duncan because the reader can infer that the hallucinations Macbeth starting to second guess himself and foreshadows that Macbeth will regret killing King Duncan at some point in the play.

William Shakespeare’s play, “Macbeth,” explains the tales of a Scottish noble aiming to become the future King of Scotland. The Scottish noble, Macbeth, is driven by his selfish desires to murder King Duncan and steal his throne. Along the way, Macbeth’s guilt and paranoia begin to take over, causing him to make unacceptable decisions. Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses several motifs to further explain his ideas. A motif is a recurring element or symbol that is seen

In the beginning of the play, blood imagery is very important. "Till he unseamed him from the nave to the chaps, / and fixed his head upon our battlements"(I.ii.22-23). Macbeth has just killed the enemy and become a hero; Macbeth killed the enemy not for fame or fortune but to defend his land and people. In this next quote Macbeth's

In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare relates the imagery of blood and water, which are symbolized in the major themes of the play. Images of blood and water are mainly shown together as one main symbolic image of numerous themes. Each detail of imagery has an important symbol related to the major themes of the play. Shakespeare’s play is about Macbeth’s power to become king, including the murder of King Duncan and his continuous evil actions. After the witches tell him that he is going to become king, he doesn’t think about it but he decides to make it happen so he kills the current king, and his best friend. Macbeth is married to Lady Macbeth who does encourage some of the killings, but in the end she kill’s herself. Macbeth written by William Shakespeare expresses the themes of ambition, guilt, consequence and the super natural, which is reinforced by the use of imagery.

     In the play ‘Macbeth’, Shakespeare uses brutal imagery, with association of blood.  The mood of disgust and horror towards the characters and setting is established by the references to the universal representation of death and pain. The first mention of blood seems to establish a sense of honor. The second mention of blood seems to communicate betrayal.  Lastly the third allusion of blood appears to establish a sense of guilt All of these images of blood help develop the atmosphere and scene and contribute to the over all drama of the play.