Shakespeare makes precise use of imagery to emphasise guilt

International Baccalaureate World Literature

Guilt is the feeling that controls the senses and punishes the mind. In the famous play Macbeth, the author William Shakespeare stimulates the senses with both blood imagery and hallucinations. Shakespeare makes precise use of imagery to emphasise guilt.

Shakespeare uses blood imagery to dramatically exaggerate guilt within the play. Firstly, Lady Macbeth’s enormous sense of guilt provokes her to smell blood on her hands. While sleep walking, Lady Macbeth says, “Here’s the smell of blood still: all the perfumes / Of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh!” (V.i.48-49). The blood portrays the odour of guilt since the scent strongly appeals to the sense of smell. Lady Macbeth’s hands possess the endless scent of blood causing the perfumes unable to eliminate the odour. By differentiating the sickening smell of blood to the sweetness of all Arabian perfumes, Shakespeare exaggerates the sense of blame Lady Macbeth feels. Furthermore, Lady Macbeth’s massive amount of guilt at the end of the play causes her to see blood spots on her hands. She famously states, “Yet here is another spot ... Out damn spot! out, I say!...” (V.i. 31-39). The spots agitate the sense of sight and they drastically irritate Lady Macbeth. The blood spots are the stain of guilt on Lady Macbeth’s hands. Lady Macbeth is commanding the spots to go away hence instructing herself to remove the guilt. Due to Lady Macbeth’s extreme desire to eliminate her guiltiness, emphasis is put on the guilt to show how disturbing the feeling can be. Lastly, the amount of guilt Macbeth feels is so immense that Shakespeare uses imagery to describe it. Macbeth says, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hands? No, this my hand will rather / The multitudinous seas incarnadine, / Making the green ones red” (II.ii.60-64). The need of washing the blood clean from the hands tingles the sense of touch, while crimson red seas appeals dramatically to the sense of sight. The blood is the guilt that Macbeth feels after committing the deed of murdering the king. The blood on Macbeth’s hands is of such great amount that no quantity of purity can wash the stain of guilt away. In addition, by reddening green seas with only Macbeth’s bloody and guilty hands, the color of blood is significantly dominating over red’s contradictory color green. Moreover, the reddening of water closely refers to the God’s great powers in Exodus 7:20. “And he lifted up the staff and struck the water that was in the Nile ... and all the water that was in the Nile was turned into blood”. The reddening of water is the power of God, yet because of Macbeth’s incredible guilt, the blood on Macbeth’s hands could incarnadine not only the Nile, but all of Neptune’s oceans. In conclusion, Blood establishes the imagery Shakespeare uses to magnify guilt.

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The hallucinations within the play powerfully illustrate how Shakespeare uses imagery to amplify guilt. Initially, Macbeth’s strong sense of guilt after murdering the king causes him to hallucinate voices. Macbeth secretly tells his wife, “Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more; / Macbeth does murder sleep’ ... / Still it cried, ‘sleep no more;’ to all the house: / ‘Glamis hath murder’d sleep, and therefore Cawdor / Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no more!” (II.ii.35-44).Macbeth’s haunting hallucinations strongly appeal to the sense of sound. He is unconsciously giving himself consequences thus emphasising the dominating power of Macbeth’s guilt on his own mind. Having Macbeth feel guilty enough to punish himself, Shakespeare exaggerates the amount of guilt Macbeth experiences. Prior to Macbeth’s crime, Macbeth creates delusions due to his increasing guilt. Macbeth says to himself, “Is this a dagger which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee; / I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. / Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible/ To feeling as to sight? ...” (II.i.33-37). The dagger is a visual sight that Shakespeare uses to shows Macbeth’s guilt haunting him before his crime. The realist handle and Macbeths desire to grasp it quivers the sense of touch. The dagger makes Macbeth’s guilt extremely realistic and emphasises how his guilt is already on his mind, however, not yet on his senses. Since Macbeth feels guilt prior the crime, the emphasis is now put onto the guilt Macbeth feels after the deed. The Ghost of Banquo Haunts Macbeth’s sight for Macbeth is guilty of his death. Macbeth openly says to the court, “Here had we now our country’s honoured roof’d, / Where the grac’d person of our Banquo present;” (III.iv.40-41). The ghost of Banquo haunts Macbeth’s sight for Macbeth is guilty of his death. The ghost emphasis guilt because it haunts only Macbeth and because of the irony and guilt Macbeth feels, the ghost of Banquo sits only in Macbeth’s seat.

William Shakespeare uses superb imagery and exquisite language to emphasis guilt within the play. In Macbeth, blood and hallucination imagery coexist to powerfully provoke the five senses.

Shakespeare makes precise use of imagery to emphasise guilt

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