Nemesis is the Greek Goddess of vengeance. In Greek mythology, she is believed to pursue those who displease the Gods. In literature, nemesis is associated with any fate of right retribution. Nemesis can be seen in V.I.1-37 of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. In the scene, a doctor is hired to look over Lady Macbeth’s apparent sleepwalking illness. The Doctor and the Gentlewoman witness Lady Macbeth sleepwalk and perform various activities. Lady Macbeth is seen in a somnambulistic state, as she is not aware of her her surrounding and is performing complex acts while sleepwalking. Lady Macbeth is going through intensive anxiety and this can be seen as her nemesis. Through Shakespeare’s use of symbolism, imagery and stylistic devices, the play Macbeth effectively portrays nemesis as an …show more content…
During Lady Macbeth’s hallucination, she imagines blood on her hands. She says, “Yet here's a spot.” (Shakespeare V.I.29). In the context, she means a spot of blood on her hands. The blood has came upon her hands from the murders of King Duncan, Banquo and Macduff’s family. The blood is a symbol of guilt. Lady Macbeth is overwhelmed by guilt, leading to intensive anxiety and her somnambulistic state. Moreover, Lady Macbeth is seen to do compulsive hand washing. The Gentlewoman explains to the doctor, “It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus/washing her hands: I have known her continue in/this a quarter of an hour.” (Shakespeare. V.I.26-29). Compulsive hand washing is a well-known symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder and other anxiety-related disorders. Lady Macbeth mental illness is the outcome of her own actions. As a result of her sins, she has poor mental health, eventually leading to her death. Shakespeare reminds the audience that one will always be punished, in one way or another, for the sins they have committed, as nemesis is
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.
“This tyrant whose sole name blisters our tongues, was once thought honest…” (77). This quote represents the change of Macbeth throughout the play. The use of blood imagery is used to represent the character development of Macbeth from a noble thane to a murdering tyrant. We first see blood imagery characterizing Macbeth when he is called noble for defeating Norway. Then, the idea of un-washable blood shows that Macbeth’s character will change. When Macbeth begins to experience the blood of others on his own hands, it leads him to ultimately become the “villain” or antagonist of the play. Finally, before the death of Macbeth, blood imagery has been used to characterize Macbeth so much that he is now over confident and seems to be fueled by the idea of it. By examining the use of blood imagery, one can determine that blood represents Macbeth’s character development from an honorable thane to a disrespected tyrant.
Lady Macbeth once thought that she would be able to wash herself clean of the horrors she once committed. This is not possible for she is so full of guilt that now her hands are completely covered in blood. Lady Macbeth feels as if she cannot escape the evils of her past, she is trapped in the evils of the present. Lady Macbeth is trapped even in her sleep of the evils she and her husband have committed.
Lady Macbeth is of a finer and more delicate nature. Having fixed her eye upon the end - the attainment for her husband of Duncan's crown - she accepts the inevitable means; she nerves herself for the terrible night's work by artificial stimulants; yet she cannot strike the sleeping king who resembles her father. Having sustained her weaker husband, her own strength gives way; and in sleep, when her will cannot control her thoughts, she is piteously afflicted by the memory of one stain of blood upon her little hand. (792)
Macbeth’s PTSD progressed so rapidly as the play went on that it his depression, sleep deprivation, and lack of emotional response has made Lady Macbeth go insane. In the result of Lady Macbeth’s losing her reasoning she takes her own life because the guilt of the murder has made her depressed. The loss of his wife added on more stress to Macbeth’s PTSD, his fragile mind full of madness started after he returned from the war and progressed enormously towards the end of the playwright. The story of Macbeth, shows how much a diseased mind can take over a
In reality the blood should have wash off of his hands relatively easily, but this blood also represents the guilt he feels, which will never go away.(TS) Macbeth knew that murdering Duncan was immoral, but with some persuasion from Lady Macbeth, he decided to go through with it. After having his best friend, Banquo, murdered, Macbeth attends a celebration of him becoming King. At this celebration, Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo sitting at the table. Although the ghost looks like Banquo, it represents his guilt.(TS) He yells at the ghost to, “Take any shape but that,” (Shakespeare 3.4.102) of his best friend, because the guilt he feels makes his “firm nerves,” tremble (Shakespeare 3.4.102).
... him and says that a little water will do the job (II.ii.58?59). Later, though, she comes to share his horrified sense of being stained: ?Out, damned spot, out, I say . . . who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?? she asks as she wanders through the halls of their castle near the close of the play (V.i.30?34). Blood symbolizes the guilt that sits like a permanent stain on the consciences of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, one that hounds them to their graves.
Macbeth voices this hallucination when he states, "I see thee still, and on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, which was not so before" (Macbeth 2.1.46-48). The false appearance of blood on Macbeth's dagger asserts his hesitancy to murder Duncan. In this case, blood symbolizes the possible guilt of Macbeth upon the murder of Duncan. Immediately following the murder of Duncan, Macbeth uses the symbol of blood to assert the magnitude of his crime. Macbeth conveys immediate concern when he states, "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?...
When describing the smell of the blood, Lady Macbeth cries, “Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand” (V.I.53-55). The doctor notices and explains to the gentlewomen the guilt that Lady Macbeth is carrying in her heart (V.I.56-57). These lines provide the audience with a glimpse of what is going through Lady Macbeth’s head as she is smelling the imaginary blood on her hands, allowing them to conclude that Lady Macbeth is becoming insane and guilt ridden by her involvement in Duncan’s murder. She is the only one able to see the blood on her hands, making it a figment of her imagination, which allows for more intriguing storytelling.
She shows a clear process of deterioration after she murders Duncan with Macbeth for the crown. As the gentlewoman and the doctor observe, Lady Macbeth has been sleepwalking. In her sleep, she constantly repeats her actions in the past when she has not committed the murder. She keeps washing her hand in hopes of washing off her sin, but no matter how hard she tries, “yet here’s a spot”(5.1.33). As she screams in her dream, “here’s the smell of the blood still.
Blood is also used to display the guilt in Lady Macbeth near the end of the play. Throughout the play, Lady Macbeth is the one who tries to keep Macbeth sane and to keep from breaking.
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.
In result, Lady Macbeth thinks that if they wash their hands and get rid of the blood it will wash away his immorality. Even into Scene 5 you get an image of Lady Macbeth trying to wash away this imaginary spot of blood, because she’s trying so desperately to get rid of this remorse that’s it’s getting to her mental insanity. They start to realize it has stained their hands and they won’t be able to get clean from it, even causing Lady Macbeth to commit
Hence, we could see the how the murders have preyed on Lady Macbeth. In her sleep walking Lady Macbeth plays the washing theme that runs out through out the play. After the murder of Duncan in the second act, she tells her husband "a little water clears us of this deed." Now it is evident that this is not true, when she herself tries to remove the spot on her hand while she sleep walks but couldn't.