Examples Of Blood Imagery In Macbeth

Guilt. An emotion unique to humans; that feeling in our gut that permeates throughout our body when we feel responsible for any wrongdoing, whether it is in our control or not. This common, yet complex, human experience is explored in Shakespeare’s Macbeth by using blood imagery to symbolize Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s guilt. Blood is often associated with pain, wounds and death; however, blood can also be viewed as a life force, nourishment and a rejuvenator. These two conflicting interpretations of blood mirror and contrast between the two main characters. A seemingly strong character, Lady Macbeth, crumbles under guilt while an initially weak character, Macbeth, only seems to grow stronger and more confident from his guilt. By the end of

On the surface, Lady Macbeth is shown to be a cold and manipulating character who lacks in compassion. However, just like blood, there are multiple interpretations of Lady Macbeth, and small moments unveil crucial information about her internal state. Her retort after the murder of Duncan that she would have carried out the murder herself “had he not resembled (her) father as he slept" [Act 2, Scene 3, 13-14] reveals that she has some emotional attachment to her father, giving a glimpse of the slight humanity that remains within her. Similarly, when mocking Macbeth on his unwillingness to carry out their plan, she proclaims that she has breastfed a child before and knows “how tender `tis to love the babe that milks (her)” [Act 1, Scene 7, 55]. While in this context, she goes on to talk about how she would murder the child for the plan to carry out, it cannot be ignored that Lady Macbeth, in fact, has nursed a child (possibly of her own) whom she possessed a motherly instinct for and affectionally cared for. Both these incidents reveal another dimension of Lady Macbeth: the compassion and tenderness she so desperately wishes to get rid of earlier on in the

When Lady Macbeth calls on to the spirits to “unsex” [Act, Scene 5, 40] her, to get rid of her so called feminine traits, she only manages to bury them down within her, not get rid of them completely, presenting a vulnerability for guilt to attack and consume her. Furthermore, by asking to make “thick (her) blood” [Act 1, Scene 5, 43], she merely pleads to contaminate her own blood, thus not changing the fact that she still has blood from a literal standpoint. Similarly, she only contaminates her ability to feel guilt, she does not change the fact that guilt is still present within her. This is the nature of guilt, it finds the vulnerabilities in a person and attacks them there, giving the choice to either face it or crumble under it. Shakespeare suggests that suppressing the factors that make up our human consciousness does not prevent guilt from attacking them. The analogy can be drawn to blood circulating through the body; it is inevitable that blood will reach to all parts of the body and resisting this process only does harm to a person. Mirroring this is guilt, it is inevitable that we will feel guilt and while its effects vary from