Macbeth Blood Essay

"What bloody man is that?" in these, the opening words of the play's second scene, King Duncan asks about a sergeant. The sergeant then tells the story of Macbeth's heroic victories over Macdonwald and the King of Norway. The sergeant's telling of the story is in itself heroic, because his loss of blood has made him weak. Thus his blood and his heroism seem to enhance the picture of Macbeth as a hero. As Lady Macbeth plans to kill King Duncan, she calls upon the spirits of murder to "make thick my blood; stop up the access and passage to remorse." Thin blood was considered wholesome, and it was thought that poison made blood thick. Lady Macbeth wants to poison her own soul, so that she can kill without remorse. Macbeth says "this is a sorry sight", looking at his bloody hands moments after he has murdered King Duncan. His wife thinks that's a stupid thing to say, and when she notices that he has brought the bloody daggers from King Duncan's room, she thinks he's even more stupid. She tells him that he must take the daggers back, place them with the King's sleeping guards, and cover them with the King's blood. Macbeth, however, is so shaken that all he can do is stand and stare at his bloody hands, so Lady Macbeth takes the daggers from him. When she goes to do the job she thinks he should do, Macbeth still stands and stares. He asks himself if all the water in the world can wash away the blood "will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?" and he answers his own question, "no, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red." His wife thinks his obsession with blood shows that he's a coward. She dips her hands in the dead King's blood, and covers the guards with the blood, then tells Macbeth that "my hands are of your color; but I shame to wear a heart so white." She means that now her hands are bloody, like his, but she would be ashamed to have a bloodless and cowardly heart like his. She leads him