“Thou canst not say that I did it; never shake
Thy gory locks at me!”
This literal reference implies that Macbeth does not feel guilty about Banquo’s death, and it helps us to create a vivid monstrous picture of what Banquo’s corpse would look like.
In Macbeth, there are many supernatural happenings. As the three witches are creating a potion in a cauldron, he demands them to answer his questions and therefore, the witches show him three apparitions. The first apparition, an armed head, has told Macbeth that he has to beware of Macduff, however, the second apparitions, a child covered in blood, told him,
“The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth”
The second apparition assures Macbeth that Macduff wouldn’t harm him, and the third apparition reassures him too. This foolishly lets Macbeth believe that he is indestructible and he could not be defeated.
With the apparition’s words in mind, Macbeth goes into battle with Young Siward and manages to kill him. After Young Siward’s death, Macbeth boasts that no man born of a woman is capable of killing him, and he doesn’t want to fight with mercenaries and looks for Macduff, as Macbeth thinks that he was born of a woman. When he is facing Macduff, he tells him that no naturally born man can kill him. He says,
“I bear a charmed life which must not yield
To one of woman born”
And this boosts Macbeth’s confidence and makes him think he will win this battle, until Macduff reveals,
“Macduff was from his mother’s womb
Untimely ripped”
When Macbeth hears this, he is deeply shocked. He has put all of his trust in the witches and his hope has been taken away from him in a second. Once again, the witches have misled Macbeth, but this time it has cost him his life. Macbeth begs Macduff to end the battle as he knows Macduff could kill him. He says,
“I’ll not fight with thee”
Macduff does not take any notice of his words as he strongly wants revenge for the murder of his family. We feel rather sympathetic towards Macbeth now as he would not have committed these murders if he had known of the consequences.
After Macduff has killed Macbeth, he walks into Dunsinane Castle with Macbeth’s head on a pole. This is a sign of bravery and he is rewarded for it. Malcolm refers to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as,
“Dead butcher and his fiend-like queen”
I think this description was quite accurate as Macbeth killed Duncan in order to gain the place as King, in the way that a butcher kills animals to gain money. Also, the word “fiend” means “devil” or “evil spirit”, which could possibly be an exaggeration as she did not actually kill Duncan as he resembled her father, which is hardly the signs of the devil.
While all of these literal references to blood are important in the plot, the most powerful metaphorical reference to the word “blood” is when it relates to Macbeth’s guilt. The most powerful use of using blood to refer to guilt is when Macbeth says to Lady Macbeth about the grooms,
“One cried “God bless us!” and “Amen” the other,
As they had seen me with these hangman’s hands.”
This reference shows a tremendous amount of guilt as he could not say Amen when the grooms did. This is the first reference to the recurring “bloody hand” motif.
Another vivid use of blood equalling guilt is when Macbeth tells us in his soliloquy,
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No: this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incardine,
Making the green one red.”
This literal and metaphorical reference shows exaggeration and tells us that he has such a strong feeling of guilt after he murdered Duncan that he wondered if he would ever be able to overcome the feeling. He refers to his hand being tremendously covered in blood that if he were to wash it in the sea, it would turn the sea red.
Lady Macbeth also uses ‘blood’ to refer to her guilt. Lady Macbeth experiences strange happenings when she is asleep. The doctor and a gentlewoman visit her to examine her actions. The gentlewoman says,
“Look how she rubs her hands.
It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands”
This seems as though Lady Macbeth is trying to get rid of the blood from her hands because she feels overpowered by the guilt. She does it regularly when she sleepwalks, and it lasts up to quarter of an hour.
Lady Macbeth shows the most vivid example of guilt using the symbol of blood in the scene in which she sleepwalks. She says,
“Yet here’s a spot.
Out damned spot! Out, I say! One, two…
Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?”
This speech represents the fact that she cannot wipe the bloodstains of Duncan from her hands. The guilt is playing on her conscience and it is driving her insane, feeling that she will always live with the knowledge of committing a terrible murder. It is slightly ironic that she says this because right after the murder when Macbeth was feeling guilty she said to him,
“A little water clears us of this deed”
This literal and metaphorical reference shows that she undergoes a large character change, for at this point guilt has failed to enter her thoughts, for she is relieved that the deed was successful and she knows that she will now be Queen to Macbeth.
Not only does Lady Macbeth visualise the blood on her hand, she believes that she can smell it too. She tells us,
“Here’s the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes
of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”
This metaphorical reference shows us how vivid the smell is in her mind. It seems like Lady Macbeth is deteriorating and there’s no way she can return to normal.
The key theme of the play is Macbeth’s ambition to become the King. Lady Macbeth strongly urges Macbeth to become King, and it is the tragic flaw that causes his downfall. At the Banquet scene, Macbeth tells the first murderer,
“There’s blood upon thy face”
and the murderer replies,
“’Tis Banquo’s then”
and Macbeth states,
“’Tis better thee without, than he within.”
This literal reference to blood shows us how Macbeth sees that Banquo has been murdered. He thinks it’s better for Banquo to be dead than alive as he has a better chance at becoming King. This implies Macbeth’s determination to become King and he would clearly do anything to gain royalty.
Ambition is also a key issue the first time we hear about Lady Macbeth. She has received a letter from Macbeth, which tells her of the witches prophecy of kingship. She does not think that Macbeth would be willing to kill Duncan, so she thinks that she has to persuade him to do it. Our first impressions of her are as a dominant, controlling, heartless wife who is determined to help her husband achieve his ambition, which is to become the King of Scotland. In her soliloquy, she tells us,
“Make thick my blood,
Stop up th’access and passage to remorse
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose no keep peace between
Th’effect and it.”
This literal and metaphorical reference shows us how Lady Macbeth sees blood as strength. She is asking evil spirits to assist her murderous plans, which are murdering the King and his relatives so that Macbeth can become the King of Scotland.
We get to see the strength of Lady Macbeth’s character when she and Macbeth have murdered Duncan. We can see that she is a strong enough character to be able to persuade her husband into killing Duncan. She tells Macbeth,
“My hands are of your colour”
This shows us how she is driven by the desire for her husband to attain the power of a King and she convinces him that she is equally as guilty as she has implicated the groom in the murder.
Lady Macbeth is clearly very overruled by her guilt that it starts to take over her life. She begins to experience unnatural happenings, such as talking to herself and sleepwalking. We can see that Lady Macbeth is slowly deteriorating, and she feels so guilty that she can’t get rid of the feeling. She says to herself,
“Will these hands ne’er be clean?”
This implies that she still sees her hands as being covered in blood, as a sign of guilt. It is ironic how Lady Macbeth feels extremely guilty, but it was Macbeth who actually killed Duncan.
Blood references are also effectively used in Shakespeare’s character of Macbeth himself. At the start of the play, we hear the Captains views of Macbeth which are all very positive. We learn that Macbeth has won the battle and the captain is making him out to be a hero. He tells us,
“For brave Macbeth – he deserves that name”
It is clear that Macbeth is well-respected at the beginning. Macbeth even gets praise from the King, and he doesn’t seem like he would averse to slaughter. The captain also talks about how Macbeth and Banquo were so ferocious on the battlefield that he describes them as,
“cannons over-charged with double cracks.”
This description means that Macbeth and Banquo were almost exploding with aggressiveness and it helps us to imagine their strength. Ross describes Macbeth as,
“Bellona’s bridegroom”
Bellona was the Roman Goddess of war, and to be her bridegroom you would have to be as equally warlike or more. We can conceive from this that Macbeth was someone that is extremely brave on the battlefield and he is respected by many people. There does not yet seem to be any cruelty involved in his behaviour.
When Macbeth is deciding whether to murder Duncan or not, the vision of a dagger inspires him. In his soliloquy he is hallucinating and he says,
“Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand?”
Macbeth can visualise a blood-stained dagger in front of him and this lets him see how easy it would be for him to become King. Macbeth’s wife also influences him, such as when he says he is not willing to kill Duncan. She attacks his manhood when she teases him by saying,
“When you durst do it, then you were a man.”
By implying that if he does not do it, the he is not a true man. Lady Macbeth also accuses Macbeth of cowardice and lack of manliness which makes him even more determined to become King.
Macbeth feels extreme guilt when he is at the banquet. Once the murderer leaves the hall, the ghost of Banquo appears for the first time. This is the first presence of anything supernatural in this scene. Until this point, Macbeth’s character had become stronger, but it now begins to deteriorate and this is when Lady Macbeth starts to take control. This reminds us of when she took control of the situation earlier in the play, when Macbeth brought the daggers back after killing Duncan. It also shows us that she is the stronger character of the two and that she can keep calm when she needs to. Macbeth notices that it is only him who can see Banquo’s ghost, however he says aloud,
“Thou canst not say I did it; never shake
Thy gory locks at me!”
This is a literal reference, which helps us to create a vivid monstrous picture of Banquo’s corpse in our minds. Lady Macbeth luckily manages to find an explanation and tells her guests that he often hallucinates, which makes them think nothing of it.
Malcolm’s view of Macbeth is very negative towards the end of the play. He says to Macduff,
“I grant him bloody,
Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,
Sudden, Malicious, smacking of every sin that has a name”
Malcolm’s three-lined character assassination of Macbeth sums up a negative view of him. Later in that scene, Malcolm says,
“Macbeth is right for shaking,
And the powers above put on their instruments”
This means that Malcolm is about to endeavour to overthrow King Macbeth. Malcolm is on the side of the good and sees Macbeth as being on the side of evil.
Macduff thinks of Macbeth as a tyrant, and he wants to ensure that it is his sword that kills him. Otherwise, he feels that the ghosts of his wife and children will haunt him. Macbeth boasts that no naturally born man could ever hurt him, but Macduff warns him that he was born by caesarean and so had not had a natural birth. He calls Macbeth a coward,
“Then yield thee coward”
and goes on to explain how he wants to kill him and put him on show for all to see with a sign saying,
“Here you may see the tyrant”
In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the audience becomes very aware of the power of evil to destroy. Throughout the play, the power of evil is obvious. In the characters of Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth we are shown how their desperate determination to achieve their ambition leads to a bloody struggle for power. Lady Macbeth comes across as being the most powerful character in the play and her uncontrolled ambition results in the untimely deaths of her and her husband.