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What Does Blood Symbolize In Macbeth

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Throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare uses blood imagery to develop a foil between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. In the play, blood symbolizes the guilt that the characters have. After the murder of King Duncan, Macbeth says, “Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood/ Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather/ The multitudinous seas in incarnadine,/ Making the green one red¨ (2.2). Here Macbeth is filled with guilt over his evil act of killing Duncan and fears that he will have blood on his hands for the rest of his life. While on the other hand, Lady Macbeth feels no guilt and is able to move on past the murder saying, ¨My hands are of your colour; but I shame/ To wear a heart so white¨ (2.2). From the very beginning, Shakespeare establishes …show more content…

To emphasize this, Shakespeare reuses blood to symbolize guilt and makes Lady Macbeth go insane to where she has hallucinations of blood. Unlike in the beginning, however, she can't get rid of the blood so easily: ¨Here's the smell of the blood still: all the/ perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little/ hand. Oh, oh, oh!¨ (5.1). The guilt has been building up in her for so long that it eventually leads to her demise and suicide. Vice-versa, Macbeth has grown to be evil and no longer feels the repercussions of murdering people. He has no guilt whatsoever and even states that he's in too deep that there is no point in turning back now; he should continue killing until he gets what he wants: ¨I am in blood/ Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o’er¨ (3.3). Robert Fallon, author of A Theatergoer's Guide to Shakespeare's Themes, agrees that Macbeth has changed immensely throughout the play stating that “He is transformed from an initially admirable figure into a monster¨ (184). Fallon further states that “Macbeth is seen initially as a noble figure, loyal to King Duncan” and even after Macbeth has murdered Duncan “he suffers ... from the distress of guilt”

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