Motif of Blood in Macbeth Shakespeare
In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the motif of blood plays an important factor in the framework of the theme. A motif is a methodical approach to uncover the true meaning of the play. Macbeth, the main character in the play, thinks he can unjustly advance to the title of king without any variation of his honest self. The blood on Macbeth’s hands illustrates the guilt he must carry after plotting against King Duncan and yearning for his crown.
Shakespeare used the image of blood to portray the central idea of Macbeth, King Duncan’s murder. The crime is foreshadowed in the second scene of the first act. The king shouts, “ What bloody man is that?” (I,ii,1) He is referring to a soldier coming in from battle. The soldier then explains to King Duncan of Macbeth’s heroics in battle. One assumes that Macbeth is bloody just like the soldier. The soldier describes Macbeth in action “Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel, / Which smoked with bloody execution.” (I,ii,17-18) This line connects Macbeth with killing, and hints at the future.
The evil deed of murdering the king becomes too much of a burden on the Macbeths. The blood represents their crime, and they can not escape the sin of their actions. Macbeth realizes that in time he would get what he deserves. Since he can not ride himself of his guilt by washing the blood away, his fate may have been sealed. They
try to use water for vindication, but Macbeth says that all the water in the ocean could not cleanse his hands. He imagines the blood from the murder staining the ocean red. Lady
Macbeth differs from her husband in this aspect. She believes her conscience would be cleansed at the time her hands are physically cleaned. She tells her husband to have the same beliefs as she or he would be driven to insanity. Ironically, Lady Macbeth is the one that is driven to the brink of lunacy as she commits suicide at the end of the tragedy.
The image and scent of blood symbolizes the unending guilt of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The blood on their hands represents the inability to annul the murder from their memories. While sleepwalking, Lady Macbeth was aggravated with own hands. She was seen muttering, “Out damned spot! Out, I say!” (V,I,39) This proves that her evil deed in still on her conscience.
Industrialization provided many benefits for the nation but however, it also created serious problems that required action by the government. Most of the factories owners treated their employees unfairly and unequal. They made them work large amount of hours for underpaid wages. Most of the people even children, worked 16 hours for 25 cents a day. Their employees had to deal with unsafe machines that sometimes were extremely dangerous. If they got injured they didn’t have any financial aid or any kind of compensation that helps them to get better. Instead they were kicked out from their job. If a machine caught fire, they didn’t have safety measures such as fire drills or emergency exits that make the exit of the building such an easy task. Most of food factories, didn’t force their employees to wear gloves, masks and hair nets while they were working and manipulating the products. This lack of hygiene measures brought a large amount of diseases that easily spread out around the country through the food these factories sold. Sometimes costumers could find hair or even eat meat where someone had sneezed on it. Because of the excess of power that monopolies had believed they could treat their employees however they wanted. To achieve better hours, better wages, and better working conditions the government passed several laws th...
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Although it may seem that the lord is at an advantage of using the bondsman for his own gain through the deterrence of power, Hegel shows how the more to gain. Hegel writes, “what desire failed to achieved, he succeeds in doing, viz to have done with the thing altogether, and to achieve satisfaction in the enjoyment of it. Desire failed to do this because of the thing’s [bondsman] independence” (Hegel 116). This passage shows why the lord has much more to lose because the bondsman acts as an independent consciousness of intentionally not wanting to submit to his lord. How...
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Late-onset is what I’m most interested in, occurs four to ninety days from a “caregiving” environment, which is where the NICU comes into play (Anderson-Berry, 2014). The neonate outside of the womb, the skin, respiratory tract, conjunctivae, GI, and umbilicus becomes colonized and invasive microorganism can make its way into the body (Ande...
middle of paper ... ... Blood is everywhere in Macbeth, beginning with the opening battle between the Scots and the Norwegian invaders, which is described in harrowing terms by the wounded captain in Act I, scene ii. Once Macbeth and Lady Macbeth embark upon their murderous journey, blood comes to symbolize their guilt, and they begin to feel that their crimes have stained them in a way that cannot be washed clean.
On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), a piece of legislation that seeks to improve the American health care landscape in a variety of ways. The PPACA strives to increase access to affordable insurance coverage while working towards structural and other changes that will keep future healthcare costs under control. The common goal, and the one concept that is unanimously accepted is the aspiration to improve the quality of care for all citizens across the United States at the highest of standards.
While talking to himself about possibly murdering King Duncan, Macbeth notes that if “bloody instructions” are taught, they will only return to harm those who taught them” (I.vii.9). Here, blood is used in a negative tone, as it foreshadows the harm that would to come to Macbeth if he were to kill King Duncan. Blood continues to have a negative connotation as the play continues. When Macbeth sees the dagger before him, he turns away and then turns back towards the dagger to test its legitimacy. When the dagger is still there, he notes that there are “gouts of blood” on the handle and on the blade “which was not so before” (II.i.47-48). This sudden appearance of blood mirrors the change in Macbeth’s character and the connotation of blood throughout the play. Both begin with a sense of positivity and heroism, but as the play progresses they turn into more negative and murderous beings. Because the blood on the dagger has a dark and deadly quality to it, Macbeth turns to violence in order to move up the hierarchical ranking, despite having knowledge of the repercussions of committing regicide. The shift in the connotation of blood becomes the most clear after Macbeth kills King Duncan. Once he committed the act, Macbeth questions if he will ever be able to truly wash King Duncan’s blood “clean from my hand” (II.ii.64). The blood is used as a foil for the guilt Macbeth feels after murdering King Duncan; even though he may be able to wash the physical blood away, his hands are forever dirty with the murder of King
And so, the idea that it is perfectly acceptable for scientists to freely manipulate the course of nature is ridiculous. Genetic engineering is by no means a tool to be tampered with or abused, especially when it defies so many natural laws. Would you be prepared to take responsibility for the extinction of a species purely because curiosity got the better of you?I think not. And for that reason it is my firmly held belief that we should stop meddling with a force as unpredictable as nature - for we will have no one else to blame for the outcome other than ourselves.
Macbeth is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare that follows the footsteps of an evil tyrant who will accomplish whatever he must in order to maintain his power. Throughout this play, Shakespeare uses many different motifs that help shape the themes in numerous ways. A motif is a reoccurring image, word, structure, phrase, object, idea, or action in a work of literature. Throughout this play there are many motifs such as sleep, violence, hallucinations, and blood. Blood is shown throughout the entire play making its first appearance in the opening act and its last appearance in the final act. “Blood, represents evil plans and consequences of overreaching ambition” (Royal Shakespeare Company). Through Macbeth’s murderous journey, blood
The symbolism of blood prior to, and immediately following Duncan’s murder amplifies the magnitude of Macbeth’s treachery. Following the prophecy of the witches, Macbeth contemplates the possible effects of murdering Duncan in order to gain the crown. Macbeth believes the killing of Duncan will provide "bloody instruction" to Scotland and will in turn "plague th' inventor" (1.7.9-10). This quotation characterizes the murder of Duncan as a bloody deed, therefore amplifying the severity of the crime. Prior to the murder of Duncan, Macbeth hallucinated bloody splotches on his dagger.
Imagery is the use of symbols to convey an idea or to create a specific atmosphere for the audience. Shakespeare uses imagery in Macbeth often, the most prevalent one, is blood. I believe he uses this as a way to convey guilt, murder, betrayal, treachery and evil, and to symbolize forewarning of events.
The image of blood plays an important role throughout Macbeth. Blood represents the murders that Macbeth had committed, the guilt that went along with the murders and the pain that it brought on him during his downfall. The soldier describes the violence and bloodshed, in the war between Scotland and Norway, "Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds." (I. ii. 43) foreshadows the violent nature of the play filled with murder, guilt and pain. Blood in the murder of King Duncan also plays a major role because it represents Macbeth's guilt as well as his shame for slaying King Duncan. Macbeth observes his blood stained hands and remarks "As they had seen me with these hangman's hands." (II. ii. 28) This reveals his guilt and shame because he is comparing his hands to those of an executioner's. After the murder, Macbeth refuses to return back to the bed chamber of Kind Duncan to smear the blood on the sleeping guards, because he is afraid that the blood will incriminate him further. Lady Macbeth smearing the blood onto the guards represents them trying to rub their guilt off onto the guard. "I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal, for it must seem their guilt" (II. ii. 73) but this proves to be ineffective because Macbeth ends up murdering t...
The imagery of blood shows Lady Macbeth wants to get rid of her guilt. Lady Macbeth states, “And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood” (1.5. 49-50). Lady Macbeth is saying that she wants be filled with cruelty from top to bottom and to thicken her blood because she knows that from what she is about to do, she will get guilt.
Symbols are present in every person’s daily life. Symbols are seen everywhere, whether it is through art, religion, culture, or road signs, they are all around. Blood is a symbol that is seen in art, religion, literature and many other visual forms. Its direct connection to the human body is a significant aspect of its symbolism. People in the medieval period, which was right before Shakespeare’s time, thought that the blood was a person’s life force, and to some extent they were right. Literature uses blood to represent a variety of things such as a character’s desires, emotions and conscience. In the play “Macbeth,” by William Shakespeare, blood symbolizes many things, however, the most significant