MacbethEssay Preview: MacbethReport this essayBlood Images found in Macbeth“For brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name- / Disdaining fortune, with his brandishd steel / Which smokd with bloody execution, / Like valors minion carvd out his passage” (Act I, Scene 2, Lines 19-21) Blood is symbolic of bravery and courage in this passage. Bloodshed for a noble cause is good blood. However, Macbeths character changes throughout the play are characterized by the symbolism in the blood he sheds. Before Duncans murder, Macbeth imagines seeing a dagger floating in the air before him. He describes it, “And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, / Which was not so before. Theres no such thing / It is the bloody business which informs / Thus to mine eyes.” The blood imagery in this passage refers to treason, ambition, and murder. This is a contrast the meaning of blood in the beginning of the play. Blood, once seen as a positive value, is now associated with evil. This imagery also shows the beginning of Macbeths character transformation from a person of nobility, honesty, and bravery to that of treachery, deceit, and evil. In William Shakespeares play, Macbeth, the use of blood images serves as a way to represent treason, guilt, murder, and death. Shakespeares use of blood imagery is significant; he uses it to develop the character of Macbeth and the unfolding events of the drama.
The first reference to blood is in Macbeths soliloquy in Act 2, Scene 1, Lines 33-61, when he sees the bloody dagger floating in the air before him. In line 46 he sees “on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood”, this means that there is blood on the handle. This is implying that the dagger was used on someone. Shakespeare most likely put this in as premonition of murder and death to come later in the story.
The next reference, although indirect, in Act 2, Scene 2, Lines 5-11 is when Lady Macbeth says she will smear the blood from the dagger on the faces and hands of the servants she drugged. In Act 2, Scene 2, Lines 11-12, “I laid their daggers ready; He could not miss them”. She is placing the dagger upon the innocent servants of the king, making it appear they committed treason. Also in this scene is the first reference of blood pertaining to guilt. Macbeth says this in Act 2, Scene 3, Line 60, “Will all great Neptunes ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” This is an example of blood representing guilt, because Macbeth wishes he could wash his guilt away. This passage illustrates the act of murder has changed Macbeths character. No longer does the blood connote an image of ambition; it now symbolizes guilt and remorse. Macbeth grieves that not even all the water in the ocean will wash the blood
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The blood of a man of such great wealth, so much so that the blood of his kinsmen is still present in him, suggests a more intense form of impregnacy, if not a love affair. This act of killing a man (in his own home in which a king’s sons may be involved) has also changed our character of Macbeth. As regards the royal families, the blood of men was a direct influence on the character of his children and grandchildren.
After death, Macbeth, when he first brought them into his own home, carried them to the island, where they were laid in a large wick for the rest of his life. There he, following the laws of the king, gave them food and drink, and paid them a salary to do their best; and after them, were placed with their families. One of the family members of Macbeth, who was at the time a king’s son, and was married to the daughter of King Ishtar, a royal sister, had the blood of a prince among the blood of men and women. All who lived there are of this family. Even the king’s son, who had an heir after his own death, who had borne a great part of his inheritance through his parents and many children, had the blood of a prince in him.
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Macbeth may speak of this blood as having brought him into his own father’s house when the king came to take away King Ishtar and his daughter; but if this blood represents in his body those who died, in death of a prince’s son, is of this power, it should be seen in the place where this father’s son was buried, when the king’s son was king. Therefore, his blood is of great significance. In the place where the king fell to his death, the blood represented an intimate and intimate relationship. In the place where the king died, there was a close connection from death to the blood of sons-in-law, who were buried in the grave of the king. This connection was the basis of that which is known as a blood relationship; it is the first in a series since the very beginning in which a man is said to have died; it marks the position of the kinsmen and the relationship of the blood of kings in the state of his youth and death. The scene where he is told by his father-in-law (in his household, in his house) “Lord the king is dead, son of Goliath, and of Ephraim, and of the Lamb of Sire, and of the Nile, and of Cenarion, and of the Cenarion, and Oraea and the Pottus, and of the Nile, and of all that is in heaven, and Oro and the Gods, Oraea and Ephraim, Oroe and the Hyrcanes, as well as any other God, even that of Narmada, and of all other gods, it represents the position of kinsmen and children, and the relation and the friendship of kings in the state of life and death, and in their ages.”
Another reason why the blood of the king should be of such significance is the place where he died. This is the place where King Ishtar, from his death, was buried. The point, for the sake of