Blood, especially for those sensitive to such gory imagery, has a very powerful effect on readers. Whether it drips from a weary hero's blade after a long battle, or sticks to the bed sheets and the clothes of a murdered King, blood in imagery has the ability to develop and reveal character personalities. Shakespeare, in the beginning of his play Macbeth, uses blood to portray Macbeth and many other characters as brave and heroic; however, as the story develops, blood begins to indicate betrayal and darkness in the dispositions of many previously heroic and noble characters.
In the beginning of Act II, Shakespeare uses blood in imagery to introduce Macbeth as a hero. King Duncan and his sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, are speaking with the sergeant
…show more content…
Macbeth comes out of the king's room with bloody hands and says, "This is a sorry sight" (2. 2. 18.). Lady Macbeth, who finds Macbeth to be acting very foolishly, tells him "...wash this filthy witness from your hand./Why did you bring these daggers from the place?/They must lie there: go carry then and smear/The sleepy grooms with blood" (2. 2. 49-52.). But Macbeth refuses to return the daggers, fearful of what he had done. Lady Macbeth then takes the daggers from him to finish the job, and Macbeth asks himself, "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" (2. 2. 57-60.). Macbeth believes if he were to wash his hands in the ocean, the blood would turn the water red rather than cleanse his hands of the blood. As seen in the scene, the sight of blood makes Macbeth more fearful of what he is done but, in contrast, Lady Macbeth believes "a little water clears us of this deed" (2. 2. 64.) and does not feel remorse. The bloody imagery also displays Macbeth's hesitance to shed blood when it is not for a noble cause and Lady Macbeth's selfish desire to become loyalty, further developing both