The Symbol of Blood in Macbeth
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, blood is a symbol that is recurring throughout the play and it is present during many important scenes. Blood represents numerous things during the duration of the play, such as valor, guilt, and justice. The audience comes to find out that neither Macbeth nor Lady Macbeth can escape the symbol of blood. Blood is personified in a wide spectrum of feelings and outcomes.
At the beginning of the play, Duncan and Malcolm are talking to a wounded sergeant. “For brave Macbeth--well he deserves that name--/ Disdaining fortune, with his brandish’d steel/ Which smoked with bloody execution/ Like valour’s minion carved out of his passage/ Till he faced the slave” (1.2.15). Macbeth enters the play as a fierce and valiant warrior, who fights for what is right and for his honor. The sergeant speaks very highly of Macbeth, which is much different than how he is spoken of at the end of the play. When Macbeth sheds blood, it is for a purpose, and he is rewarded by many men for doing so. Macbeth only sees blood when it is the right time to see it, and he doesn’t kill for himself, he kills for his country.
After Macbeth and Lady Macbeth kill Duncan, blood slowly starts to drip into their lives. They no longer can live without guilt. The blood symbolizes how they cannot even try to forget what they have done, it ended up “haunting” them for the rest of their short lives. “A little water clears us of this deed:/ How easy is it then! Your constancy/ Hath left you unattended” (2.2.31) Slowly, the guilt starts to take over the lives of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. It is seen that Macbeth is being overtaken when he has his “encounter” with the ghost of Duncan. The ghost is covered in blood, and Macbeth is almost perceived as insane if it weren’t for the swift explanation by Lady Macbeth. The guilt had not really set in at this point for her. Lady Macbeth ends up killing herself because she can’t “wash her hands clean” of the act of killing Duncan. Although she didn’t actually do the act, she can’t forget it or escape it. She ends up killing herself because they awesome amount of guilt that she has endured because of the murders of Duncan and Banquo.
At the end of the play, when everyone from his castle has deserted him, Macbeth still knows that he cannot be killed by a man whom had been birthed by a woman. This gives him the false sense of security that he so willfully stands behind. Macduff and Macbeth get into a long, vicious sword battle that nearly ends when Macbeth has the opportunity to kill Macduff, but he doesn’t kill him because he decides against it. Macduff tells him that he wasn’t borne from a woman, and they start to fight once again. When Macduff finally kills Macbeth, he puts Macbeth’s head high into the air and exclaims, “Hail, king! for so thou art: behold, where stands/ The usurper’s cursed head: the time is free:/ I see thee compass’d with thy kindom’s pearl, / That speak my salutation in their minds; / Whose voices I desire aloud with mine: / Hail, King of Scotland!” (5.8.4). The evil brought about by Macbeth is successfully ended with his death and his wife’s. Justice is restored to the people of Scotland, and the blood flow is stopped.
The symbol of blood in Shakespeare’s Macbeth is the key factor in tying the plot together with some ironic twists and turns. The play helps to personify the phrase “Blood is thicker than water,” because Macbeth and Lady Macbeth could never successfully wash away their sins and forget about the past, and this was why they ended up dead.
