Three to four percent of our population suffer from blood phobia or another related disorder. Blood phobia is the extreme and irrational fear of blood. In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the symbol of blood changes the characters relationships with blood from guilt and regret for their murders which eventually drives them insane; reliving the murders in fear as the symbol of blood haunts them. The play starts as blood representing honor and how Macbeth is a hero but soon changes to symbolize guilt and fear of others’ knowing what he has done. The blood changes from guilt to fear as Macbeth starts to regret what he has done as the murders come back to stab him in the back. In act 1 scene 2 lines 60-66, Macbeth speaks of the blood on his hands after murdering Duncan as he starts to regret his actions. In act 3 scene 4 lines 122-140, Macbeth realizes that blood begets blood and continues to murder. In act 5 scene 1 lines 31-36, Lady Macbeth is crazy because of the spot of blood still on her hand and how the smell will never leave her. In these three examples Macbeth’s murders come back to frighten him.
After Macbeth murders Duncan, Duncan’s blood is all over Macbeth. This makes Macbeth uncomfortable and he starts to compare the blood covering him
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Her relation to blood changes as first starting off as acting as a creepy unhumanly devil with a love for blood which then changes to fearing the smell of blood and imagining it on her hands. “Out, damned spot. Out, I say one, two. Why then ‘tis time to do’t. Hell is Murky…,” Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking/ sleeptalking imagining that patches of blood are all over her and she is demanding them to come off. Later, she speaks about “all of the perfumes of Arabia,” and how they all couldn’t take the scent of blood away. The fear of blood eventually lead to Lady Macbeth to commit suicide due to the murders haunting her