How Does Shakespeare Use Blood Motif In Macbeth

Motifs are used vividly throughout Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Macbeth to give the reader a greater understanding of the play display a powerful message. To begin the play, Macbeth is displayed as an honorable character , but as time passes, he is influenced immensely by Lady Macbeth, his wife, to do malevolent actions. His actions dictated by Lady Macbeth later causes extreme guilt on him and Lady Macbeth. The blood motif doesn’t appear only physically but comes mentally. Blood illustrates the consequences that comes with of murdering King Duncan. From the beginning to the end of Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the frequent use of blood is used to symbolize the constant feelings of guilt felt by the characters, eventually leading to the infinite

Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going,And such an instrument I was to use. Mine eyes are made the fools o' th' other senses, Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still, And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, Which was not so before. There’s no such thing(Macbeth 2.1 39-48).
As his obsessions with killing King Duncan grew, it caused him to hallucinate about a dagger which he is going to use to murder King Duncan. The bloody dagger illustrates a reality in Macbeth’s mind in which it foreshadows things to come. Although Macbeth has not committed a crime, the soliloquy illustrates his conscience and how his mind is already filled with guilt. “And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, which was not so before.” (Macbeth 2.1 47-48). Before Macbeth planned on murdering King Duncan his conscious was clear of guilt, but now he is experiencing a guilt he never felt before. After murdering King Duncan in his sleep, Macbeth returned to his room but realized that there was blood in his hands. When his wife noticed, she took the dagger from him and planned to make it look like the guards murdered King Duncan. When Lady Macbeth left, he knew what did was unimaginable and the feeling of guilt started to

Ha! They pluck out mine eyes.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. (Macbeth 2.2 58-64)
The imagery of blood shows that Macbeth will never be able to remove the blood from his hand. The change in color from green to red shows that the guilt Macbeth is feeling will never go away. Guilt will always haunt Macbeth as the crime he just committed will always remain in his consciousness allowing him to feel remorse and