Macbeth Essay Outline

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Cassie Foster
Mr. Rosenbush
Honors English 12
December 12, 2019
Macbeth Blood Essay
In Shakespeare’s famous play Macbeth there is a pattern of blood becoming mentioned
heavily throughout the play. This contains murder, battles, instability, backstabbing, and a
variety of other situations towards blood. Throughout “Macbeth”, there are multipole scenes that
analyze what blood may symbolize or represent. In specific the two topics that blood symbolize
which is the guilt of murder and the instability of Lady Macbeth.
First, throughout Shakespeare’s famous play Macbeth, blood imagery is used often to
symbolize the guilt murder. To begin, this quote is foreshadowing that Macbeth is going to go
through with killing Duncan, “And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, / which was not so
before. There’s no such thing. / it is the bloody business which informs / thus to mine eyes”
(Shakespeare II.i.46-49). Macbeth is hallucinating here and sees a bloody dagger that is floating.
The dagger here is what symbolizes murder as well as Macbeth talking about killing Duncan.
Macbeth reaches out to grab the dagger but fails to do so. He then starts to question if what he is
seeing is true or not. Macbeth is not stable here and it is shown that his sanity is no longer
present due to the hallucination. Moving forward, Macbeth goes through with killing Duncan. He
has blood all over his hands and tells Lady Macbeth that the deed is done. Macbeth seems to be
frightened after he committed murder and Lady Macbeth notices. She gets angry because he
forgot to leave the dagger in order to frame others for Duncan’s murder. Lady Macbeth takes
care of what needs to be done and helps her husband wash off the blood from his hands. She tells
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him that water will clear them of the deed of killing Duncan. Lady Macbeth has a large influence
on Macbeth that will cause more damage than needed. Next, Macbeth sees blood on his face
from Banquo, “There’s / blood on thy face” (Shakespeare III.iv.13-14). This quote is stated when
Banquo is finally killed. Macbeth is seeing blood on his face. This is when the first murdered
killed Banquo and the murder tells Macbeth that it was Banquo’s blood that was on his face. He
told Macbeth that Banquo is now dead because he killed him. Furthermore, Macbeth begins to
see Banquo’s ghost that is haunting him. Later on, a different side of Macbeth is revealed in
which he is willing to do whatever it takes to keep his throne. Overall, blood imagery is used
throughout Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and in this case as shown is used to symbolize murder.
Second, throughout Shakespeare’s famous play Macbeth, blood imagery is used often to
symbolize the mental state of the characters. Lady Macbeth in specific is sleeping walking and
begins to talk about blood and her murders, “Yet who would have thought / the old man to have
had so much blood in him” (Shakespeare V.i.42-43). Based on the evidence in the play, Lady
Macbeth has a candle in her hand sleepwalking and begins to become mad by claiming to see
blood on her hands. She utters the blood on her hands is Lady Macduff and Banquo’s. She says
how nothing can ever wash it off which displays her guilt and how it caused the craziness that
resulted with these murders. She pretends to wash her hands which is symbolizing her guilt for
these murders as well as her insanity due to the fact that she feels like she cannot wash away the
blood although there actually is not any blood on her hands, and it is all in her head. Lady
Macbeth carries on going deeper into her hallucination and talks about the smell of Duncan’s
blood, “Here’s the smell of the blood still. / all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this
little / hand. O, O, O!” (Shakespeare V.i.53-55). This is another quote that displays the insanity
of Lady Macbeth. This once again occurs during her sleepwalking and she claims that no
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perfume or scent can get rid of the smell of Duncan’s blood. Furthermore, this is another
example of how Lady Macbeth’s sanity is no longer present, and she feels guilty. There are many
instances in Macbeth where characters see things that are not actually there and go mad due to
the actions that they have committed.
All in all, blood is mentioned multipole times throughout the play Macbeth by
Shakespeare. As shown blood symbolizes a variety of things throughout the play. Although, in
specific the topics of guilt, murder, and insanity are core examples of how blood was symbolized
in the text. “The word ‘blood’ appears over 40 times in Macbeth – not to mention appearances by
related words such as ‘bloody’, ‘bleeding’, and so on” (bbc.co). Overall, Macbeth is a dark play
that had the constant theme of blood throughout.

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Work Cited
“Form, Structure and Language - Revision 3 - GCSE English Literature - BBC Bitesize.” BBC
News, BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zpdq2hv/revision/3.
Shakespeare, William, et al. Macbeth. Oxford University Press, 2015.

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December 12, 2019

Macbeth Blood Essay

In Shakespeare’s famous play Macbeth there is a pattern of blood becoming mentioned

which is the guilt of murder and the instability of Lady Macbeth.

the actions that they have committed.

that had the constant theme of blood throughout.

News, BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zpdq2hv/revision/3.

Shakespeare, William, et al. Macbeth. Oxford University Press, 2015.

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