Hands In Macbeth

Heavy Hands Macbeth is a play highlighting power, greed, and guilt. Throughout the play the word hand is used numerous times to amplify some of these major themes. The word hand appears in a variety of denotations and connotations as the play progresses. In Act I, hand is used often as a welcoming motif. Whether it be shaking one’s hand or the witches walking hand and hand, the word seems to appear only in a good sense. In Act two the word evokes a new feeling, that of implementation of evil deeds. In Act III and IV the word is mostly used in the sense of repercussions that deeds may produce. Finally in Act V, the usage of the word hand symbolizes the guilt, which has compounded during the play. The recurrence of the word hand in Act V and …show more content…
From this, the audience becomes aware that this is a routine. The customary action along with talking to oneself could be interpreted as a clue of her mental state. Just a few lines later Lady Macbeth does talk to herself saying “The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now? What, will these hands ne’er be clean? No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that! You mar all with this starting.” This statement could be a sign of what today is referred to as schizophrenia. Although, as the audience, we have no clue as to the exact disease, we do, nonetheless, know she is troubled mentally. We now understand she desperately wants her literal hands to be cleansed because of the helplessness within the words “What, will these hands ne’er be clean?” Her hands are real, it is the blood that is in her imagination. However, that blood which has stained her hands leaves her hands feeling guilty. Shakespeare is using the word hands as a motif for guilt. He conveys that her hands are dirty, covered in something she cannot rid herself of, no matter how many times she washes. We can conclude her hands are guilty because they were the tools used to conduct the