Motif Of Blood In Macbeth

Guilt is the feeling of having committed wrong or failed in an obligation. It is a significant theme in the play as it allows the reader to see a very different side of the characters involved, which will contribute to their demise. In this essay, I will be analysing the motif of blood, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s soliloquies, and the imagery of hallucination.

Firstly, Shakespeare explores guilt through the motif of blood in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. In Act 2 Scene 2, after Macbeth kills Duncan, he hallucinates blood on his hands, asking “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? Making the green one red.” This paints a visual imagery of Neptune’s ocean trying to wash away the imaginary blood which symbolises the guilt

The ocean will not only be unable to wash off the blood but be turned red by blood, as shown in “Making the green one red”. The drastic shift in colour, from green in pure water, to red in blood, emphasises how the ocean will be fully contaminated by the blood, showing the overwhelming amount of guilt Macbeth feels. In Act 5 Scene 1, Lady Macbeth starts to hallucinate about the smell of blood on her hands in her sleepwalking. She says, “Here’s the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” This evidence paints the olfactory imagery of the smell of blood and perfumes. The word “still” suggests that the smell of the blood lingers although some time has passed since Duncan’s murder. Perfumes have a strong scent that can overcome any smell the person has at first. The fact that even the strong scents of perfume cannot “sweeten this little hand” tells us that the smell of blood cannot be overpowered, which will haunt Lady Macbeth forever and remind her of the sin she committed. Her

In Act 2 Scene 1, Macbeth prepares to kill Duncan, but cannot bring himself to do so as he starts to hallucinate, “Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle towards my hand? I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.” A dagger is a weapon that is used to kill people. This visual imagery encourages him to blame his intention to kill Duncan on the coincidental appearance of the handle combined with the handle towards him. The fact that Macbeth tries to find something to blame no matter how intangible it might be portrays the immense guilt that he’s facing. If he weren’t feeling guilty, he wouldn’t have to find the need to blame. However, the dagger seems to be imaginary as Macbeth’s senses are confused by its existence. He can’t touch it, yet he can see it. This emphasises how unsound Macbeth’s state of mind is, suggesting that he is overcome by guilt to carry out the sinful deed. In Act 5 Scene 1, Lady Macbeth was sleepwalking and said, “To bed, to bed; there’s knocking at the gate.” This evidence paints an auditory imagery of the sound of knocking. The knocking is a reference to the imaginary knockings heard by Macbeth after Duncan is killed. Thus, the knocking symbolises the guilty conscience of Lady Macbeth. Previously, she was not able to hear the knockings, but now she can, which emphasises how the impact of guilt has started to sink into her brain to the extent where she has