Реферат: Macbeth The Symbol Of Blood Essay Research

A final way, and perhaps the most vivid use of the symbol blood, is of the

theme of guilt. First Macbeth hints at his guilt when he says “Will all great

Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?”, meaning that he wondered

if he would ever be able to forget the dastardly deed that he had committed.

Then the ghost of Banquo, all gory, and bloody comes to haunt Macbeth at the

banquet. The sight of apparitions represents his guilt for the murder of Banquo

which he planned. Macbeth shows a bit of his guilt when he says “It is the

bloody business which informs thus,” he could not get the courage to say murder

after he had killed Duncan, so he says this instead.

Lady Macbeth shows the most vivid example of guilt using the symbol of

blood in the scene in which she walks in her sleep. She says “Out damned spot!

Out I say! One: two: why then ’tis time to do’t: hell is murky. Fie, my lord,

fie, a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it when none can call

out power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so

much blood in him?”. This speech represents the fact that she cannot wipe the

blood stains of Duncan off of her hands. It is ironic, that she says this,

because right after the murder, when Macbeth was feeling guilty, she said “A

little water clears us of this deed.” When the doctor of the castle finds out

about this sleepwalking, he tells Macbeth “As she is troubled with thick-coming

fantasies,”. What this means, is that Lady Macbeth is having fantasies or

dreams that deal with blood. Macbeth knows in his mind that she is having

troubles with her guilt, but does not say anything about it.

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, when he says

“But get thee back, my soul is too much charg’d with blood of thine already.”.

Of which, Macduff replies, “I have no words, my voice is in my sword, thou

bloodier villain than terms can give thee out.”

After the death of Macbeth at the hands of Macduff, the symbolic theme of

blood swings back to what it was at the beginning of the play. It is the symbol