Macbeth-Blood Essay, Research Paper

Blood is essential to every human beings survival. It is a fluid circulating throughout the body that carries nutrients and oxygen to the tissues in exchange for life and if this was somehow lost then the life would also be lost. No matter what caused the loss of blood, if it were jealousy, revenge, guilt or treachery the life would still be forfeit. In Macbeth there are many symbolic gestures towards blood, which ultimately develop into the main dominating theme of the play. In the beginning of the play blood is symbolized for ones honor and courage, half way through the play blood symbolizes treachery and treason, and towards the end of the play blood symbolizes guilt and grief. Bloodshed also gives one power and with power there comes great responsibility. Macbeth is a play stained in blood that has many symbolic measures to it.

The first reference of blood is one of honor, and occurs when Duncan sees the injured sergeant and says, “What bloody man is that?”(Act 1 Sc 2 line 1) This is symbolic of the brave fighter who has been injured in a valiant battle for his country. In the next passage, in which the sergeant says, “Which smok’d with bloody execution”(Act 1 Sc 2 line 18), he is referring to Macbeth’s braveness in which his sword is covered in the hot blood of the enemy. Blood is used in these passages to identify honor and courage, it separates the good from the bad, and it also gives the reader a view of how the shedding of blood will be used often to identify certain characteristics.

After these few references to honor, the symbol of blood changes to show a theme of treachery and treason. Lady Macbeth starts this off when she asks the spirits to “make thick my blood,”(Act 1 Sc 5 line 43) What she is saying by this, is that she wants to make herself insensitive and remorseless for the deeds which she is about to commit. Lady Macbeth knows that the evidence of blood is a treacherous symbol, and knows it will deflect the guilt from her and Macbeth. Macbeth knows this too, as he try’s to put the blame on the Donaldbain and Malcolm by referring to them as the “Bloody cousins”. (Act 3 Sc 1 line 30) Both characters commit several treacherous crimes which is represented with blood to let the audience know of their wrongdoing and to show that eventually this will be their undoing.

A final way, and perhaps the most vivid use of the symbol blood, is the theme of guilt. Macbeth first hints at his guilt when he says, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?”(Act 2 Sc 2 line 60) meaning that he wondered if he would ever be able to forget the dastardly deed that he had committed. Lady Macbeth also shows her guilt with the most vivid example using the symbol of blood in the scene in which she walks in her sleep. “Out damn spot! Out I say Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?”(Act 5 SC 1 line 35) This represents the fact that she cannot wipe the bloodstains of Duncan off her hands due to her guilt. Just before the ending of the play, Macbeth has Macduff at his mercy, and lets him go, because of his guilt. He shows that he is guilty. “But get thee back, my soul is too much charg’d with blood of thine already.”(Act 5 Sc 8 line 5) After Macbeth dies the symbolic theme of blood swings back to what it was at the beginning of the play. It is a symbol of honor to Macduff this time.

It can be seen throughout the whole play that anyone who is willing to kill will get power but not all will have the great responsibility to control that power. Macbeth had that power but made a fatal mistake by not taking responsibility for his actions. “We have scotch’d the snake, not kill’d it:”(Act 3 Sc 2 line 13) Macbeth had his time of fame but he wanted more and his greed got the better of him, not listening to his conscience or not thinking about the future, he was just acting on instinct and therefore he did not control his own power.

So the reader can see that the meaning of the symbol of blood change from honor to treachery, and then to guilt, after this, it returns to the symbolic meaning of honor once again after the villain that changed the meaning from honor to tyranny is killed. Due to these many changes, it has been proved that the symbol of blood has many different meanings, which can be attributed to it throughout the course of the play.