Macbeth Tragic Themes Essay, Research Paper

One of the themes in The Tragedy of Macbeth is that of blood. Macbeth is known

for his skills as a warrior and his mercilessness that is shown in his killing

of MacDonwald, this warrior mentality spreads though into his life and Macbeth

begins to make killing a habit. When he is told in a prophecy that he shall be

king, Macbeth takes it upon himself to murder, Duncan, king of Scotland, after

this murder though he has visions of blood on his hands, blood nothing could

remove. As Macbeth becomes more and more ambitious, he also begins to kill more

people to get what he wants, more power. The theme of blood is shown throughout

the play and it is a problem that Macbeth finds harder and harder to rid himself

of after each killing. At the beginning of the play Macbeth is an esteemed

member of the army, probably the greatest fighter in all of Scotland. A

rebellious tribe led by MacDonwald was defeating the Scots, until Macbeth

?single-handedly? defeated the rebels and ?unseamed him (MacDonwald) from

the nave to th? chops? (Shakespeare 279). This battle gave Macbeth great

respect among his peers and even the king himself. Macbeth?s savagery at this

point in the play was less than at any other time. His barbarity is restricted

to the battlefield, but in this the first scene you get a forewarning of

Macbeth?s future, that of bloodshed and violence. On his way home from the

war, 3 witches give him predictions of his future. ?All hail, Macbeth! Hail to

thee, Thane of Glamis! All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! All

hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter? (Shakespeare 290)! Macbeth was

already Thane of Glamis, but he wondered why they would say that he would be

Thane of Cawdor and even KING. Macbeth dismissed this as tomfoolery and

impossible. But, later Macbeth was told by the king that because of his valiant

fighting against MacDonwald that he was given the title of Thane of Cawdor. This

made Macbeth think of the prophecy and his chance to be king! The desire for

power began to consume Macbeth and his wife, and this ambition caused all of the

bloody events that were to follow. Macbeth?s tragic flaw, ambition, grew

enormously when he heard of his designation as Thane of Cawdor. He wanted the

kingship that Duncan held much more, as did his wife, Lady Macbeth. They plotted

to hurry Macbeth?s reign by killing Duncan themselves. Throughout the play his

ambition is a precursor for someone?s death. While King Duncan sleeps, Lady

Macbeth prepares for her husband to kill the king. Macbeth brutally stabs the

king twice, killing him. After the murder, Macbeth is clearly broken, hardly

believing what his ambition caused him to do. He says, ?What hands are here?

Ha! They pluck out mine eyes! Will all great Neptune?s ocean wash this blood

clean from my hand? No; this mine hand will rather the multitudinous seas

incarnadine making the green one red? (Shakespeare 320). Macbeth is troubled

by knocking and says that nothing can wash his hands clean, and the blood will

make the seas red. Lady Macbeth feels bad to have red hands but to be innocent

of the crime itself. She tells him to wash his hands and retire and put on his

nightgown so that they will not be suspicious to the watchers. Macbeth wishes he

did not know what he had done. The blood on his hands shows that his hands are

?stained with guilt?, that nothing could be done to change what he did. His

guilty conscience is represented by the fact that he will always see his blood

covered hands. But instead of this act restraining Macbeth and keeping him from

killing again, it causes his ambition to grow and the murders to grow. In the

morning when it is found that Duncan was dead, and the evidence Macbeth left

shows that the chamberlains killed him. In a false sense of fury Macbeth

butchers the chamberlains saying that he did so because in his great love for

the king, he felt the need to kill his murderers. The death toll begins to mount

as Macbeth?s ardor makes him believe that killing is the way out of all his

dilemmas. This will eventually cause his own downfall. Macbeth?s next

assassination comes at the hand of his friend Banquo and his son Fleance.

Macbeth?s ambition and power has caused him to develop a grave sense of

paranoia. A paranoia that actually leads to all the rest of his murders

including that of the chamberlains. He is so worried that someone might find him

out that he kills anyone that could challenge him even in the slightest way. It

is actually quite surprising to me that he never tries to kill his wife, because

with her insane behavior, she must have been a challenge to his throne. The

paranoia that sets in which causes him to attempt a murder upon Banquo and

Fleance is twofold. Firstly, the witches that predicted his kingship also said

that Banquo?s descendants would take the throne, which he holds, and secondly

that he had mentioned to Banquo that he might attempt to kill Duncan. So Macbeth

sends out two murderers to kill Banquo and Fleance. The third murderer has a

questioned identity; some think it was Macbeth himself while others assume it is

another hired hand. In short terms the murderers kill Banquo, but young Fleance

escapes. In the next scene, that of a banquet that was to honor Banquo, Macbeth

sees his friends ghost. The ghost of Banquo was bloodied and looked horrible. It

is another example of Macbeth feeling the guilt of his murder but this time the

bloody theme is shown in a different manner. He says to the ghost ?Avaunt and

quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee! Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is

cold; Thou hast no speculation in those eyes which thou dost glare with

(Shakespeare 321). At another point he says ?Never shake thy gory locks at

me?(Shakespeare 289). Macbeth again is having visions of the gore that he has

caused. He can not shake the guilt from himself and throughout the play the

blood represents his guilt and all the death his ambition has caused. The

bloodshed in the play does not stop at that point though. In another set of

predictions the witches inform Macbeth to ?Beware Macduff.? Macbeth?s

extreme sense of Paranoia sets in, and he sends another set of murderers to kill

Macduff at his home. The murderer finds that Macduff has fled Scotland to try

and convince Malcolm and England to fight Macbeth. The murderer takes it upon

himself to kill Macduff?s son. Macduff, enraged finally makes Macbeth pay for

his mindless aggression. Macbeth is left to defend his castle alone against

Macduff and Malcolm. Before this happens though, Macbeth considers ending his

own pain and guilt by drawing his own blood, he says ?Why should I play the

Roman fool and die on mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes do better

upon them?( Shakespeare 272). He goes on to tell Macduff that he feels no pain

in killing him because the guilt of his soul is already stained with his blood,

for he had ordered his family to be killed. Macduff then calls Macbeth as a

bloodier villain than any word could describe. Macbeth tells Macduff that his

blood cannot be shed by anyone that was born of a woman. All these quotes lead

back to the theme of bloodiness. They concentrate on how their lives our sealed

by blood the material that keeps them going. They never talk about killing; they

talk about the loss of a man?s blood. So if Macbeth?s soul was stained with

blood, it was clear how his lifeended. He could not avoid this metaphor

throughout the play, how he caused so many peoples blood shed, that it is his

blood in the end which is drawn by Macduff that kills him. The Tragedy of

Macbeth is a story that has been told and acted for hundreds of years. It was

one of the first works that had murder as the basis for its plot. Shakespeare

has been dissected by many great scholars and taught to millions of people. It

has taught the lesson that ambition can become a fault. Macbeth?s ambition

causes him to do many things he would not otherwise have done, a fault many of

us have; he just took it to the extreme. The blood that stained Macbeth reminded

him of all the wrongdoing he had done. The blood represented the errors in his

ways. Blood represents life, and when you are bleeding in such a way that the

sea could not soak up your blood you are a man destined to die. The blood

represented the life death and purgatory of the great Macbeth. In today’s

society, greed, jealousy, and envy is the root of all evil and I believed that

this was true in this story along with the theme of blood which represents

guilt. Scott Eckers belived in this also. "Because of greed, Macbeth (and

Lady Macbeth) want more power — that of the Royal Family. Greed for power has

completely engulfed their minds?." (Eckers). This, I believe, is a part

of what led to the downfall of Macbeth along with the "stained with

guilt" hands that where covered with blood (Shakespeare 283). In the 1999,

many t.v. murder movies have a guilt theme to them, although some are just for

entertainment. In 1995, a woman named Susan Smith killed her two children

because she couldn?t handle taking care of them. On one dreadful night she

took her children out driving and parked near a lake. She got out saying she had

to tinkle and left the car in neutral. While getting out she pushed the car into

the lake. She walked to the nearest town and said someone robbed her and took

her kids. While the investegation was going on, she had an emotional breakdown.

She felt a lot of guilt on her heart. She eventually told the police what

actually happened and was sent to jail and is awaiting death row (Stoccs). Guilt

plays a part in all our lives in what we do. When we lie we sometimes think

about the consequences. The guilt makes people feel so overpowered they can’t

survive without getting rid of their guilty conscience. This is what drives

people insane and how many people end up in the nut-house.

Eckers, Scott. ?Macbeth Themes and Devices? Shakespeare, William. Macbeth:

A Students Guide.1997. http://www.geocities.com/heartland/meadows/1824/themes.htm

(4 Nov. 1999) Shah, Ravi, and Neal Groothius. ?Major Themes In Macbeth?

Table of Contents. 1999. http://www.imsu.edu/~ravi/macbeth/table.htm ( 5 Nov.

1999) Shakespeare, William. ?The Tragedy of Macbeth.? Prentice Hall

Literature Prentice Hall. New Jersey: Englewood Cliffs, 1991. 271-351. Stoccs,

Jay. ?Susan Smith: A Heartbreak.? The Washington Post: Cover Story. Editor:

Nacny Rodstick. April 13, 1995 . Ryder, Brad. "The Power of Guilt: Use It,

Abuse It, Get Over It, by Mr. Knowalot" http://www.knowalot.com/mrk-guilt.htm

(12 Nov. 1999)