The Symbolism Of Blood In Macbeth

Blood can represent many things in life, injury, sin, and even guilt. In Macbeth blood is described throughout the book. Most of the time it is where the characters are experiencing a lot of guilt in what they have done. There are many situations where guilt is the main theme and blood is the reason for this. Guilt can build up in someone until they can not handle it anymore, it is like blood, it stains.

The first example of the symbolism of blood we are introduced to is where Macbeth and Lady Macbeth decide to kill king Duncan to gain the throne. In this Macbeth was pressured to do the dirty deed by his wife. Shortly after the guilt comes upon him where he says, “Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep’,
the innocent sleep” (2. 2. 35). Macbeth is effected immediately by this as for Lady Macbeth, it takes a while to sink in. Authors Jonathan Bates and Eric Rasmussen exclaims that, “His wife chides him for this but, ironically, as the two of them wade deeper into blood. He becomes more purposeful, She a nightmare- beset shadow of her former self” (1). What they mean by this is that, Macbeth was not completely aware of what he had done or what he was doing. During this time Macbeth was experiencing an internal conflict where he was distraught and lost. This was a time where everyone around him encouraged his actions. Although on the inside he was torn, he regretted it and he knew it was something he could not take back. Time went on and he became more aware and more addicted to the feeling he got when killing someone. This made him feel better about

himself. As for Lady Macbeth, she was well aware of the situation as it was happening but it does not bother her until later on. When she realizes what she had caused and noticing that others are starting to figure it all out.

Considering the fact, that this book has many biblical references, Macbeth relates in many ways to the bible.
It talks about letting go of your sin and letting God take control. In this verse it relates to Macbeth tremendously. “There is only cursing, lying, and murder, stealing, and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed,” (Hosea 4. 2). The meaning of this verse plays out very well with this book by telling us that blood met blood when he committed this murder. In other words he was completely innocent up until this point where he lied and let his power take control. Macbeth shows his guilt before he even commits the murder when he says, “If it were done, when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well If it were done quickly: if the assassination could trammel up the consequence,” (1. 7. 1-3). According to Brayton Polka his interpretations of Macbeth was that, “If our buried deed do not stay buried, we might as well leave them unburied,” (57). What he means by this, is that sooner or later no matter how hard you try to hide it, your guilt will take control of you and everyone will find out the truth. Which is why you should own up to a crime or something you had committed before it get’s out of
hand.

The next example of symbolism in Macbeth is introduced when Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking admitting to everything she had done.
Lady Macbeth enters the room and says, “Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh! oh! Oh!” (5. 1. 43-45) This is where the audience knows that Lady Macbeth finally realizes she is guilty of these murders. This lead to an example of external conflict, starting where she was sleepwalking telling on herself, to where she killed herself over this. When facing something like this one can only wear a mask for so long. Lady Macbeth kept seeing the blood stains on her hands because once an image like that gets to you it does not go away. Blood literally stains not only clothing but mentally also. Even though all of this was Lady Macbeth’s idea she blamed it on Macbeth until she told on herself. Some way or somehow the truth always comes out no matter how hard you try to hide it. This example of external conflict is so important in this book because it shows the readers that Lady Macbeth’s character changes throughout the book and that she is not as strong as she seemed to be. Her character is very dynamic, she undergoes an internal change that affects her externally. During the beginning of the story she is very demanding and heartless, throughout the book she starts to soften up. Lady Macbeth’s true character comes out during this scene. This also shows the readers how weak she is when she was
brought to her breaking point.

Author Herant Katchadourian wrote the book The Bite of Conscience which relates Macbeth to the Ten Commandments. In this book the readers are told, “Most experiences of guilt are not the stuff of tragedy but of our everyday lives,” (Katchadourian). Macbeth has multiple scenes where it refers to this. There are multiple scenes where the characters experience guilt over other things other than murder. Even though the murder scenes play the biggest role blood is the main source of this feeling. The characters experience the most guilt when blood is present. One of the different instances would be when Lady Macbeth decided to hang herself after she blamed herself for everything that had happened. Blood plays the most important roles in this book only because every time blood is mentioned it is a main part in the play. When blood is present so is guilt, blood is an image that never goes away. Anytime it is introduced it sticks with you like a stain. In this play the image of blood never goes away even up to the last scene. Guilt can take over someone’s life very quickly and it is obvious it took over Macbeth’s in the beginning then over time switched roles and took over Lady Macbeth’s. Blood stains are the worst stains and they are impossible to remove.