It is very odd to think that a boring word like hand would play a huge role in any play, let alone such a revolutionary piece like Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Although it seems weird, hand really does heavily contribute to the play as a whole. In today’s everyday society, hand is only really used to describe our physical hands, but during the time period of this piece, hand was used in a variety of weird ways, like symbolizing a person’s actions. It is very unlikely that when this quote is read, “Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand, / No son of mine succeeding,” the word hand pops out as important. Although it is odd, hand helps develop the play’s obvious dark mood, but it also helps symbolize Macbeth’s immense and overpowering
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Since Macbeth is a tragedy, it is expected that there are going to be mainly serious moments, and hand helps achieve this. In Act 5, Lady Macbeth starts to go insane and starts speaking very cryptically. While she is washing her hands, she says, “What, will these hands ne’er be clean? No / more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that! You mar all / with this starting” (5.1.40-42). In this quote, Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking and trying to wash blood off of her hands.From this, we can clearly see that she is going mad, which contributes to the dark feeling of the play. To add on, she is washing her hands of blood while she is asleep, which also helps develop the ominous mood. It can even be argued, that her hands symbolize her conscience, and she is trying to wash it clean, but her guilt won’t go away. Another example of hand being used to develop the play’s tone would be when Macbeth is preparing to kill Duncan. While Macbeth is waiting to kill Duncan, he sees a dagger in front of him and says, “Is this a dagger which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee” (2.1.33-34). In this quote, Macbeth is imagining a knife floating in mid air, and he is trying to reach for it. This quote darkens the plot, because it shows the beginnings of Macbeth’s madness. Macbeth most likely begins to hallucinate, because he feels bad for what he is about to do and is beginning
Since Macbeth is a tragedy, it is expected that there are going to be mainly serious moments, and hand helps achieve this. In Act 5, Lady Macbeth starts to go insane and starts speaking very cryptically. While she is washing her hands, she says, “What, will these hands ne’er be clean? No / more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that! You mar all / with this starting” (5.1.40-42). In this quote, Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking and trying to wash blood off of her hands.From this, we can clearly see that she is going mad, which contributes to the dark feeling of the play. To add on, she is washing her hands of blood while she is asleep, which also helps develop the ominous mood. It can even be argued, that her hands symbolize her conscience, and she is trying to wash it clean, but her guilt won’t go away. Another example of hand being used to develop the play’s tone would be when Macbeth is preparing to kill Duncan. While Macbeth is waiting to kill Duncan, he sees a dagger in front of him and says, “Is this a dagger which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee” (2.1.33-34). In this quote, Macbeth is imagining a knife floating in mid air, and he is trying to reach for it. This quote darkens the plot, because it shows the beginnings of Macbeth’s madness. Macbeth most likely begins to hallucinate, because he feels bad for what he is about to do and is beginning