Lady Macbeth, Destroyed by Blood
If someone has ever done anything that has made them look back and regret it, they have experienced guilt. Guilt is a powerful emotion. If people do not deal with that emotion they can end up depressed and it can lead to thoughts or actions that can be harmful; however, there are stages people can go through to help deal with those emotions. First there is denial then there is anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare wanted his audience to realize that Lady Macbeth never went through her emotions, which caused problems for her later. Shakespeare uses the symbol of blood to represent the buildup of guilt, which eventually leads to Lady Macbeth’s suicide.
In the beginning of the play, Shakespeare connects the concept of blood and guilt. Lady Macbeth’s famous Unsex me speech sets up this connection when Lady Macbeth asks the spirits to ¨make thick my blood. …show more content…
In this scene she tells the unspoken (the deed) “What will these hands ne’re be clean” ( 5.1.2167), she says this because she is implying that the guilt has gotten to her and it is taking control of her mind and the blood on her hands will not go away. When the doctor comes to visit her,he says “Lady is “not so sick” in body as in mind troubled by thick-coming fancies” (Kocher 38-37). Although the doctor is experienced “this disease is beyond [his] practice” (Kocher 341), showing that the guilt has taken over her mind and the only way it can be fixed is if the “treatment come from the sufferer himself” (Kocher 341), so the only way Lady Macbeth is going to help herself and rid this disease is by letting herself feel the guilt and overcome it, however she is preventing herself from healing because she is allowing the guilt to take over her mind “ There 's the smell of blood still./All the perfume of Arabia will not sweeten this hand”
If someone has ever done anything that has made them look back and regret it, they have experienced guilt. Guilt is a powerful emotion. If people do not deal with that emotion they can end up depressed and it can lead to thoughts or actions that can be harmful; however, there are stages people can go through to help deal with those emotions. First there is denial then there is anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare wanted his audience to realize that Lady Macbeth never went through her emotions, which caused problems for her later. Shakespeare uses the symbol of blood to represent the buildup of guilt, which eventually leads to Lady Macbeth’s suicide.
In the beginning of the play, Shakespeare connects the concept of blood and guilt. Lady Macbeth’s famous Unsex me speech sets up this connection when Lady Macbeth asks the spirits to ¨make thick my blood. …show more content…
In this scene she tells the unspoken (the deed) “What will these hands ne’re be clean” ( 5.1.2167), she says this because she is implying that the guilt has gotten to her and it is taking control of her mind and the blood on her hands will not go away. When the doctor comes to visit her,he says “Lady is “not so sick” in body as in mind troubled by thick-coming fancies” (Kocher 38-37). Although the doctor is experienced “this disease is beyond [his] practice” (Kocher 341), showing that the guilt has taken over her mind and the only way it can be fixed is if the “treatment come from the sufferer himself” (Kocher 341), so the only way Lady Macbeth is going to help herself and rid this disease is by letting herself feel the guilt and overcome it, however she is preventing herself from healing because she is allowing the guilt to take over her mind “ There 's the smell of blood still./All the perfume of Arabia will not sweeten this hand”