Blood_in_Macbeth

Blood in Macbeth To show the theme of corrupting power when it is unchecked, Shakespeare applies the motifs of blood in Macbeth to further the effect of this greed. The blood symbolizes the guilt of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, as it stains their conscience like blood on a white carpet. This motif appears from the begging, with the opening battle between the Scots and the Norwegian invaders. Macbeth’s hallucinations of a bloody dagger portray the bloody course in which Macbeth is about to launch. The final outcome is the “stains of blood” which haunt Macbeth after Duncan’s death and disturb Lady Macbeth’s slumber. We become aware of Macbeth’s violent and seemingly bloody actions in battle at the start of the first act. A captain reports to the King, “For brave Macbeth (well he deserve that name) / Disdaining Fortune, with his bradinshed steel, / Which smoked with bloody execution,” (I.ii, 18-20). The reader has now been introduced to the idea that Macbeth is capable of bloody destruction, although in this scene it appears to be honorable because of the war. Macbeth is shown as a brave and honorable hero, which is ironic as King Duncan sings Macbeth’s praises the day macbeth, blood, bloody, macbeth’s, lady, duncan, guilt, dagger, stains, sleep, show, perform, king, iii, honorable, conscience, clean, brave, before, battle, appears, after, act, about, white, washing, washed, wash, war, wanders, walk, wails, visualized, violent, vi, unchecked, towards, tone, thus, thought, thing, there’s, theme, take, symbolizes, symbolize, steel, state, start