Macbeth Blood Motif Essay

Improved Essays
In Macbeth the motif blood is used to show a characterization of being fearful and a mood of shock.

In Macbeth, the motif blood is used to show a characterization of being fearful. This quote took place after Macbeth killed Duncan and we see Macbeth talking to Lady Macbeth about the crime he had just committied.”I’ll go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done. Look on ‘t I dare not,” (2.2.65). In this quote the motif blood is used to show a characterization of being fearful because Macbeth was too afraid to look at Duncan’s body after he brutally murdered him. Macbeth was to afraid to look at Duncan because it haunted him to know that he killed Duncan because he had been loyal to his king for a long time. The second quote took
…show more content…
This quote took place after Duncan’s murder and Macduff is telling everyone about what he saw. “Here lay Duncan, His silver skin laced with his golden blood, And his gashed stabs looked like a breach in nature for ruin’s wasteful entrance; there the murderers steeped in the colors of their trade, their daggers unmannerly breeched with gore,” (2.3.130). In this quote the motif blood is used to show a mood of shock because Duncan’s body was covered with blood and had gashes and stabs from the murder. This was shocking because nobody expected a murder to happen in the palace. Everyone was shocked to see Duncan’s bloody body because they never expected someone like the king to get killed in the palace. The second quote took place after Duncan’s murder and Macduff was telling Lennox and Macbeth about the disturbing bloody body of Macbeth. “O horror ,horror, horror! Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee!,” (2.3.73). In this quote the motif blood is used to show a mood of shock because Macduff went to look for the king and he was really shocked to see the dead body of Duncan. This was shocking because Macduff and everyone else never expected someone to kill Duncan and commit treason in the

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires: The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be, Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. (1.4.55-60) Shakespeare- using hand/eye imagery, shows that even before Lady Macbeth encourages him, Macbeth is already considering murdering Duncan to take his throne. When Macbeth is about to kill Duncan in 2.1, his addled mind hallucinates a floating dagger coated in blood: And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, Which was not so before.…

    • 1170 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Blood is a major part of the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare. It is explored throughout the play in various ways, especially through murder. "Blood will have blood" (Shakespeare, III, iv, 45) means that each time a murder is committed, more blood will be spilled to cover up the previous murder. In the very beginning of the play, Macbeth killed a traitor to the country, and Duncan said to “go pronounce his present death, and with his former title greet Macbeth” (Shakespeare, I, iii, 4).…

    • 631 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Andie Murphy once stated, “Now I have shed my first blood. I feel no qualms, no pride, no remorse. There is only a weary indifference that will follow me throughout the war”. In Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, Blood plays a huge role and it’s not just the blood from a brutal murder but it also is a metophorical…

    • 59 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    The symbol of blood portrays how Lady Macbeth no longer thinks about anything but the murders, as she begins to talk about them in her sleep. This recurring symbol is also seen earlier in the play when Macbeth says there is enough blood on his hands to turn the seas red. The use of this motif adds depth to the play, and dramatizes the way the characters handle the events that have taken place. The recurring symbol of blood helps tie the plot of the play together; the events that occurred seem like a continuing action (like the repeated event of the washing of the hands). The motifs in the play show how the characters lose grip on reality, costing Lady Macbeth her life.…

    • 1219 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This is leading up to the developing guilt. Clearly the audience knows the stain can never be cleaned or erased, the murders are permanent. A quote directly taken from Macbeth, “I see thee still, / And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, / Which was not so before. There's no such thing: /…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    It is only because a masterpiece is art, does it survive centuries without being exterminated. Weather it was performing arts, such as music, dance, opera and theatre, visual arts, such as drawings, paintings and sculptures, or art that includes literature, such as poetry, novels, and short stories. , they all are known for at least a dozen of examples that are hundreds, if not thousands of years old. One could define art as the ability to maximize the involvement of entertaining elements, meanings, dynamics and life all into one masterpiece full of energy. Just like a painter skillfully decorates his cold colored painting with the perfect choice of colors and shades, William Shakespeare, carefully transforms the idea of a dark gloomy nightmare…

    • 1862 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Blood Motif In Macbeth

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The motif “blood” stresses out the murder plot and the actual murders that Macbeth has performed and with the help of Lady Macbeth. The pattern shows how from one murder, the domino effect took action and Macbeth started to murder more people. The importance of this motif shows how “blood” portrays the meaning of a death and the action of murder that makes the characters go insane because of their crimes. One becomes engulfed with their own crimes.…

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the play, Shakespeare uses the recurring element of blood to illustrate Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s guilt and its lasting power. Early on, Lady Macbeth urges evil spirits to remove the feminine, what she sees as the “kind” part of her and turn her into a cruel and unforgiving character. She goads the spirits to “make thick [her] blood. Stop up th’access and passage to remorse” (Shakespeare I. v. 50-51). The general belief in the era of the play’s setting was that the heart was the source of human emotion and compassion.…

    • 1399 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I have thee not and yet i see thee still” (2.1.44-47). This is Macbeth's first hallucination, he claims he sees the handle of a dagger with blood pointing toward him and believes it to be real. The audience is lead to believe that the dagger is a foreshadow to Macbeth's future of blood and violence. Macbeth refuses to take precaution in this sign and looks as it a positive, he assumes that this knife is leading him to the killing, here we see Macbeth's deterioration as he refuses to make decisions by himself and constantly needing a push when making…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Guilt Theme In Macbeth

    • 1304 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Macbeth’s guilt manifests horrifically, and he sporadically kills his friends, his enemies, and innocent people alike. After he kills his best friend, Banquo, his conscience makes one last attempt to speak to him through the bloody ghost of his latest victim. He relates his situation to a pool of blood, recognizing that, “I am in blood/ Stepped in so far that,/should I wade no more,/ Returning were as tedious as go o’er” (3.4.168-170). The blood imagery represents Macbeth embracing his guilt, instead of letting it consume him like it does Lady Macbeth.…

    • 1304 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    (Act 2 sc 1 55) Macbeth imagines a floating dagger leading him towards Duncan. The dagger turns from a clean blade, into a bloody dagger. The imaginary transition from a clean blade into a bloody blade foreshadows the actual way Macbeth`s dagger will look after killing Duncan. The blood on the knife foreshadows a violent murder.…

    • 1276 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the play Macbeth William Shakespeare uses imagery to reveal the characters deep dark desires to become greater than those around them demonstrating their undeterred ambition. Shakespeare demonstrates characters ambition by using imagery of Blood, Sleep, Nature, Clothing, and Disguise against Concealment. By using these images it reveals characters ambition and gives the reader an in depth analysis of how each character acts throughout the play. One example of imagery revealing character's ambition is through imagery of blood. Macbeth demonstrated ambition through blood imagery during his soliloquy, when the blade floating in front of him suddenly has blood on it thus informing him to kill the king.…

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this scene of Shakespeare's Macbeth, guilt gets the best of Lady Macbeth, causing her to sleep walk. As the Doctor and Gentlewoman observe the sleeping woman, she says strange things that I have recognized to be examples of imagery and symbolism. "Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen her/ rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her,/ unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon ’t,/ read it, afterwards seal it, and again return to bed;/ yet all this while in a most fast sleep. " (5.1. 3-7) This is not Lady Macbeth but the Gentlewoman who accompanies the doctor. She describes what she witnessed Lady Macbeth do as she was sleep walking.…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Send out more horses. Skirr the country round. Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armor” (Shakespeare 5.3.38-43). In the beginning of the play Macbeth was an innocent character that was scared of the witches, but at the end of the play he is a power driven maniac.…

    • 1037 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Compare and Contrast (Macbeth and Throne Of Blood) Macbeth is a play written by the great English poet Shakespeare. Macbeth is a story about a soon to become king Macbeth. He is the main character of the story as he plays a big role in the events that occur during the story. Macbeth was known for being ambitious and a person with great perseverance.…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays