thesis statement for blood imagery in macbeth

The Role and Evolution of Blood Imagery in William Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’

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Imagery and its Evocative Power in “Macbeth”

Often, in literature, imagery is used to depict different pictures or themes in the reader’s mind. Macbeth is a play written by the Elizabethan poet, actor, and playwright William Shakespeare, who is renowned as one of the greatest writers of the English language and as the greatest playwright of his era. Just like many of his famous pieces of work, Shakespeare used considerable amounts of literary devices that brought the story to life.

Imagery is used throughout literature to help the readers create ideas in their minds, like pictures. In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare’s use of imagery symbolizing blood all the way through the play is used to portray certain characters’ influences and events.

Blood is depicted in everyone’s mind as a symbol of death or hurt, which gives Shakespeare a platform to create representations in the reader’s head. In Macbeth, the main character, Macbeth, is found in this realm of powerful figures. Macbeth had been given multiple prophecies, and one was that he would be the King. To fulfill this prophecy, Macbeth’s decision to kill the King leaves him with immense emotional instability and guilt. In the play, Macbeth expresses, “I see thee still And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood.” This represents the guilt Macbeth is experiencing, saying that he still sees the blood on his knife and the blood in the dungeon. The guilt is easily symbolized by the blood in this because after he committed the crime, he still saw the blood, and it was bothering him severely.

Interpreting the Blood Motif and its Implications

The prophecies drive Macbeth to keep killing for power, thus creating more imagery of blood and animals with ravenous instincts. Other characters use blood to depict the ruthlessness of the murders or characterizations of their dead bodies. But in Act 3, Macbeth says the famous line, “Blood will have Blood.” This quote is Macbeth introducing many different possible interpretations for not only the play but for real life too. This could be Macbeth foreshadowing his own death, conveying that a murderer will always be discovered after someone commits a crime, or even just the rendition of the major principles of karma.

This can also introduce a sort of war feel, adding to the tensions from the suspicions towards Macbeth’s murders. Macbeth has not only been portrayed as a murderer throughout the drama but also a tyrant because of the grasp he attempted to have on his people and power. Macduff yells, “Bleed, bleed, poor country.” Scotland is shown as bleeding to represent its upcoming death because of Macbeth. Macbeth killed the beloved previous King and became hated as the King himself.

In conclusion, Shakespeare’s use of blood imagery is used in the play all the way through, making mental correlations in the reader’s mind subconsciously. Only a good writer can paint a mental picture in their reader’s mind with such simplicity but also complexity. Shakespeare used blood as a symbol of more than just guilt, death, hurt, revenge, and murder. Using the word blood in more than 30 different lines. There were many different ways blood symbolized themes and emotions.

Shakespeare, W. (1623). Macbeth . London: First Folio.
Greenblatt, S. (2005). Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare . W.W. Norton & Company.

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. In these, the opening words of the play's second scene, King Duncan asks about a sergeant. The sergeant then tells the story of Macbeth's heroic victories over Macdonwald and the King of Norway. The sergeant's telling of the story is in itself heroic, because his loss of blood has made him weak. Thus his blood and his heroism seem to enhance the picture of Macbeth as a hero. ] . Thin blood was considered wholesome, and it was thought that poison made blood thick. Lady Macbeth wants to poison her own soul, so that she can kill without remorse. ] . However, he's not so far gone that he doesn't know what's happening to him: . Of course the "bloody business" is the murder he's about to commit. ] , says Macbeth, looking at his bloody hands moments after he has murdered King Duncan. His wife thinks that's a foolish thing to say, and when she notices that he has brought the bloody daggers from King Duncan's bedchamber, she thinks him even more foolish. She tells him that he must take the daggers back, place them with the King's sleeping grooms, and smear the grooms with blood. Macbeth, however, is so shaken that all he can do is stand and stare at his bloody hands, so Lady Macbeth takes the daggers from him. When she goes to do the job she thinks he should do, Macbeth still stands and stares. He asks himself if all the water in the world can wash away the blood: And he answers his own question: . . She means that now her hands are bloody, like his, but she would be ashamed to have a "white" -- bloodless and cowardly -- heart like his. She leads him away to wash his hands, and she seems quite sure that . Ironically, when she later goes mad, she sees blood on her hands that she cannot wash away, no matter how much water she uses. ] . Here, the primary meaning of "your blood" is "your family," but Macbeth's metaphors also picture blood as a life-giving essence. A second later, blood is spoken of as a sign of guilt. Lennox says that it appears that the King was murdered by his grooms, because [spotted, marked] . In another second, blood appears as the precious clothing of a precious body, when Macbeth, justifying his killing of the grooms, describes the King's corpse: . (It was common in Shakespeare's time for blood to be spoken of as "golden," although it was probably just as red then as it is now.) , meaning that as the murdered King's sons, they are likely to be murdered themselves. ] . The "stage" is this earth, where we humans play out our lives. Because of Duncan's murder, the stage is bloody and the heavens are angry. . The deed is "more than bloody" because it is unnatural. King Duncan was a good and kind man whose life naturally should have been cherished by everyone. ] , are in England and Ireland, where they are denying that they killed their father. By referring to them as "bloody," Macbeth wants to emphasize their guilt. After Banquo leaves, Macbeth arranges for his murder. ] . The "great bond" is Banquo's lease on life. A man becomes pale with fear or worry because the blood drains away from his face. Macbeth believes that if Banquo's blood is shed, his own blood will return, and he won't be pale anymore. ] , he says, and the murderer proudly tells him it's Banquo's blood, and that he left Banquo in a ditch with , all mortal. ] . The ghost's "gory locks" are the locks of his hair, covered with clotted blood. After the ghost has gone, Macbeth tells himself that it's not his fault that the ghost showed up. He says that men have been killing men for a long time, since before there were even laws against it: . It's a natural thing to shed blood; what's not natural is that now the dead [deadly wounds] [heads] . After saying this, Macbeth recovers himself, returns to his guests, and proposes a toast in honor of Banquo. At that, the Ghost of Banquo re-enters. This time, Macbeth tries to drive it away with words: . Macbeth is making sure that the Ghost knows that it belongs in the grave because it is very, very dead. Perhaps the ghost actually listens to Macbeth, because it soon leaves again. Macbeth then wonders why the sight of the ghost hasn't driven the blood from everyone's face. He asks them how . Apparently he doesn't realize that only he has seen the ghost. ] . The saying means that the blood of a murder victim will seek out the blood of his killer, and so a murder will always be discovered. Macbeth knows that stones have moved, trees have spoken, birds have told secrets. All of these things have . Macbeth himself is a secret man of blood, and the bloody Ghost confronted him. His guilt was almost "brought forth" in front of his guests. None of this makes him feel remorse, or anything but a determination to see things through to the bitter end, because he is . ] . ] . ] . When the apparitions appear, we see blood on two of them. First comes an armed head, then a bloody child that tells Macbeth to . The final apparition is a parade of eight kings, escorted by the spirit of Banquo. Macbeth cries out, . Macbeth refers to Banquo as "blood-boltered" because Banquo's hair is matted with blood. ] . Because we don't use the words "mother" and "pray" exactly as they were used in Shakespeare's time, the boy's cry may sound a bit unrealistic, and we may miss the full horror of what we're seeing. A child is being murdered in front of our eyes, and although blood is never mentioned, we almost certainly it. ] . Malcolm then reassures him that all is not lost, and that he, too, feels strongly for Scotland: . , but then he goes on to say that he will be an even worse king. By going on and on about all the horrible things he will do when he is king, Malcolm drives Macduff to despair. Macduff believes that Scotland is a , and with a worse king to come in Malcolm. This is just what Malcolm was looking for, because it shows that Macduff truly loves Scotland, and doesn't just want to be on the winning side. ] Lady Macbeth had thought that once her husband was king, it wouldn't matter who knew that they murdered King Duncan, because no one would be able to challenge Macbeth's power as king, to "call our power to account." Yet the old man had a lot of blood, and she can still see it on her hands, reminding her of her guilt. His blood is pursuing her in another way, too, although she may not know it. A man's "blood" is his family, and Malcolm, who is of King Duncan's blood, is now marching with ten thousand English soldiers to call Macbeth to account. , she asks, and then she is devastated when she realizes that the blood will never come out: . ] . Their "dear causes" are their motivations -- Macbeth's murder of Malcolm's father and of Macduff's wife and children. An "alarm" is a battle, a "mortified man" is one who is half-dead, and "excite" was used the way "incite" is used now. Menteith is saying even a man who was half-dead would rush into the most bloody battle if that man had the reasons to fight that Malcolm and Macduff have. . To "dew the sovereign flower" is to make it grow, and the sovereign flower is Malcolm. Macbeth and his supporters are the weeds that will be drowned in the blood of these soldiers. ] . Macbeth is mocking the servant; he means that the only way the boy can even courageous is by pricking it to make it bleed. Also, the liver was thought to be the seat of courage, but courage requires blood, and Macbeth's opinion is that this boy is a coward whose liver is white as a lily. ] . A "harbinger" is someone or something that foretells what is about to happen; in this case, the trumpets announce that blood will flow and people will die. ] [living men], . In other words, he just likes to see the blood flow. . Macbeth answers, . "Charged" means full, overburdened, and the "blood" to which Macbeth refers is the blood that was shed in the slaughter of Macduff's wife and children. In short, Macbeth is saying that those murders are on his conscience, so he doesn't want to shed Macduff's blood. Macduff is not appeased, and says that he will let his sword do his talking: . ]

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'Macbeth': Themes and Symbols

M.A., Classics, Catholic University of Milan
M.A., Journalism, New York University.
B.A., Classics, Catholic University of Milan

As a tragedy, Macbeth is a dramatization of the psychological repercussions of unbridled ambition. Macbeth 's themes—loyalty, guilt, innocence, and fate—all deal with the central idea of ambition and its consequences. Similarly, Shakespeare uses imagery and symbolism in the play to illustrate the concepts of innocence and guilt.

Macbeth’s ambition is his tragic flaw. Devoid of any morality, it ultimately causes Macbeth’s downfall. Two factors stoke the flames of his ambition: the prophecy of the Three Witches, who claim that not only will he be thane of Cawdor, but also king, and even more so the attitude of his wife, who taunts his assertiveness and manhood and actually stage-directs her husband’s actions.

Macbeth’s ambition, however, soon spirals out of control. He feels that his power is threatened to a point where it can only be preserved through murdering his suspected enemies. Eventually, ambition causes both Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s undoing. He is defeated in battle and decapitated by Macduff, while Lady Macbeth succumbs to insanity and commits suicide.

Loyalty plays out in many ways as a theme in Macbeth. At the beginning of the play, King Duncan rewards Macbeth with the title of thane of Cawdor, after the original thane betrayed him and joined forces with Norway, while Macbeth was a valiant general. However, when Duncan names Malcolm his heir, Macbeth comes to the conclusion that he must kill King Duncan in order to become king himself.

In another example of Shakespeare's loyalty and betrayal dynamic, Macbeth betrays Banquo out of paranoia. Although the pair were comrades in arms, after he becomes king, Macbeth remembers that the witches predicted that Banquo’s descendants would ultimately be crowned kings of Scotland. Macbeth then decides to have him killed.

Macduff, who suspects Macbeth once he sees the king’s corpse, flees to England to join Duncan’s son Malcolm, and together they plan Macbeth's downfall.

Appearance and Reality

“False face must hide what the false heart doth know,” Macbeth tells Duncan, when he already has intentions to murder him near the end of act I.

Similarly, the witches utterances, such as “fair is foul and foul is fair”, subtly play with appearance and reality. Their prophecy, stating that Macbeth can’t be vanquished by any child “of woman born” is rendered vain when Macduff reveals that he was born via a caesarean section. In addition, the assurance that he would not be vanquished until “Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill Shall come against him” is at first deemed an unnatural phenomenon, as a forest would not walk up a hill, but in reality meant that soldiers were cutting up trees in Birnam Wood to get closer to Dunsinane Hill.

Fate and Free Will

Would Macbeth have become king had he not chosen his murderous path? This question brings into play the matters of fate and free will. The witches predict that he would become thane of Cawdor, and soon after he is anointed that title without any action required of him. The witches show Macbeth his future and his fate, but Duncan’s murder is a matter of Macbeth’s own free will, and, after Duncan's assassination, the further assassinations are a matter of his own planning. This also applies to the other visions the witches conjure for Macbeth: he sees them as a sign of his invincibility and acts accordingly, but they actually anticipate his demise.

Symbolism of Light and Darkness

Light and starlight symbolize what is good and noble, and the moral order brought by King Duncan announces that “signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine / On all deservers" (I 4.41-42).”

By contrast, the three witches are known as “midnight hags,” and Lady Macbeth asks the night to cloak her actions from the heaven. Similarly, once Macbeth becomes king, day and night become indistinguishable from one another. When Lady Macbeth displays her insanity, she wants to carry a candle with her, as a form of protection.

Symbolism of Sleep

In Macbeth, sleep symbolizes innocence and purity. For instance, after murdering King Duncan, Macbeth is in such distress that he believes he heard a voice saying "Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep,' the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care." He goes on to compare sleep to a soothing bath after a day of hard work, and to the main course of a feast, feeling that when he murdered his king in his sleep, he murdered sleep itself.

Similarly, after he sends killers to murder Banquo, Macbeth laments being constantly shaken by nightmares and by "restless ecstasy," where the word "ectsasy" loses any positive connotations.

When Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost at the banquet, Lady Macbeth remarks that he lacks “the season of all natures, sleep.” Eventually, her sleep becomes disturbed as well. She becomes prone to sleepwalking, reliving the horrors of Duncan’s murder.

Symbolism of Blood

Blood symbolizes murder and guilt, and imagery of it pertains to both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. For example, before killing Duncan, Macbeth hallucinates a bloody dagger pointing towards the king’s room. After committing the murder, he is horrified, and says: “Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No."

Banquo’s ghost, who appears during a banquet, exhibits “gory locks.” Blood also symbolizes Macbeth’s own acceptance of his guilt. He tells Lady Macbeth, “I am in blood / Step't in so far that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er”.

Blood eventually also affects Lady Macbeth, who, in her sleepwalking scene, wants to clean blood from her hands. For Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, blood shows that their guilt trajectory runs in opposite directions: Macbeth turns from being guilty into a ruthless murderer, whereas Lady Macbeth, who starts off as more assertive than her husband, becomes ridden with guilt and eventually kills herself.

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To help you look at any scene in Macbeth and interrogate it, it’s important to ask questions about how it's written and why.

Shakespeare’s plays are driven by their characters and every choice that’s made about words, structure and rhythm tells you something about the person, their relationships or their mood in that moment. You should always try and ask yourself, like actors do, why is the character saying what they are saying or doing what they are doing? What is their motive?

Just like Detectives, we need to look for clues to help us answer those questions each time and below you can find some interrogation techniques we use to analyse text, introduced by the actors that use them.

Analysing Macbeth’s Language

Macbeth has several soliloquies and each of them reveals a lot about his state of mind, his ambitions and fears. In this video, Paapa Essiedu shares some of the things he looks for to help him understand how a character is feeling when he first looks at a soliloquy. The example he is using is from Hamlet, but you can look for the same clues in Macbeth’s soliloquies.

What can you find by looking at the same things in Macbeth?

Shakespeare gives characters soliloquies for lots of different reasons, but characters are usually open and honest with the audience in these speeches. Read Macbeth’s soliloquy from Act 2 Scene 1 aloud and see if you can notice the things Paapa tells us to look out for:

Punctuation
Line endings

Questions to consider

What can we learn about Macbeth from this soliloquy? Ask yourself:

Do the sounds give you a sense of his emotion or lack of it? Which ones stand out? Are there lines or parts of the speech that stand out because of how they sound?
There are several rhyming couplets. Where do they occur? Why do you think these words rhyme?

If you are able to read along, you will also notice the punctuation and where each line ends. This soliloquy is written in verse, like a poem. Ask yourself:

How many sentences are there in the soliloquy? Is this more or fewer than you expected and how many of them are punctuated with question marks? Are the sentences a similar length, or are some longer? What do you think this tells us about the way Macbeth is feeling?
If you wrote down all the words at the end of each line, what would you think the soliloquy was about? Does that feel right?

Using Paapa’s strategies we’ve started to look at what the language Macbeth uses tells us about him in this Act 2 Scene 1 soliloquy. See if you can complete the grid and finish four points which explain what this speech reveals about the character at this point in the play.

Evidence Select an option

Explanation

Explanation Click text to edit

Evidence Click text to edit

Point Click text to edit

What else can I do to explore Macbeth’s language?

Try looking for these same things in all of Macbeth’s soliloquies, noting any changes in his language and behaviour. A soliloquy shows you a character’s true thoughts and a lot can be learnt about Macbeth from looking at these moments of truth. How tempted is he by the prospect of becoming king at the beginning and what influences him along the way?
Take a look at the things he says immediately before and after his soliloquies. Shakespeare often creates these comparisons to show you something.
Keep a record of the imagery Macbeth uses. Macbeth uses lots of imagery about appearance and disguise and you can find out more about this in the Analysing the Imagery section. Think about why this might be connected to his fears and ambitions.

Analysing Lady Macbeth’s Language

We first meet Lady Macbeth on her own, delivering a speech about the news she has just received from her husband of the witches’ prophecies and Duncan’s visit. In this video, actor Mark Quartley shares some of the things he looks for to help him understand how a character is feeling when he first looks at a monologue. The example he is using is from The Tempest, but you can look for the same clues in Lady Macbeth’s language.

A monologue is when one actor delivers a speech as part of a scene. It is built up of lots of different thoughts. It can be spoken to another character, or it can be spoken alone, when it is also called a soliloquy. Read Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy from Act 1 Scene 5. As you read, see if you can notice the things Mark tells us to look out for:

Word choice

What can we learn about Lady Macbeth from this speech? Ask yourself:

Can you make a list of the key images? If possible, try writing these out and grouping them together into topics? Is there a stronger theme of supernatural words or of violence? The ‘raven’ that Lady Macbeth refers to was often seen as an omen of death, or a witch’s familiar. Lady Macbeth makes a cruel joke about how the bird will have a sore throat from crying out so many times that Duncan will die. How does this connect with her other uses of imagery?
How do the words sound and does this give a sense of a spell being cast? Look out for alliteration, repetition and sibilance .
Think about where the character is breathing and pausing; how does this make her come across? Where do the full stops fall within the lines?
Look at the last word of each line. How many of those are words that you included in the lists of imagery you made?
Pick out the verbs from the text. Like Mark, can you physicalise each of these? Does this make Lady Macbeth feel more powerful or less so? How do her word choices make her sound? Is she indecisive or confident?

Using Mark’s strategies, we’ve started to look at what the language Lady Macbeth uses tells us about her in this Act 1 Scene 5 soliloquy. See if you can complete the grid and finish four points which explain what this speech reveals about the character at this point in the play.

What else can I do to explore Lady Macbeth’s language?

This is the only moment we see Lady Macbeth alone. How does her language in this scene compare with how she speaks to her husband? How does she differ when speaking to King Duncan or the other thanes? Lady Macbeth advises Macbeth to use a 'false face' with others to hide his intentions. How successful is she in doing this herself?
Lady Macbeth’s mental health rapidly declines in the second half of the play, although we do not see her descent into madness as she is offstage. How does her language change when we see her in Act 5? Where she speaks in verse consistently in the first part of the play, she now speaks in prose. What does this tell us about her?
Compare Lady Macbeth’s language with that of Hecate in Act 3 Scene 5. What are the similarities and differences? How connected is Lady Macbeth to the language of witchcraft?

Analysing the Imagery

As with all Shakespeare’s plays, there are lots of types of imagery used in Macbeth. It’s a great idea to keep a list of key quotes and examples of these types of imagery in each act and who uses them as you explore the play.

Here are three types of imagery that come up a lot in Macbeth and are useful to look out for:

Disguise Imagery

Duncan first mentions the idea of false appearances when talking to Malcolm about Cawdor. He says that there’s ‘no art / To find the mind’s construction in the face’ (Duncan, 1:4). When Lady Macbeth and Macbeth begin to plan Duncan’s murder, they decide to hide their intents through ‘false face’. Macbeth’s face is said to be like ‘a book’ and he needs to ‘look like th’innocent flower’ (Lady Macbeth, 1:5). This imagery is also used when Lady Macbeth and Macbeth disguise their deeds by getting into their nightclothes after Duncan’s murder, and when Malcolm’s army disguise themselves with tree branches.
How many examples of disguise imagery can you find in the play and what do they reveal about the characters who use them? Is disguise always presented as a negative?

Religious Imagery

Fear of heaven and hell is hugely important for all the characters in Macbeth. Lady Macbeth calls on ‘murd’ring ministers’ (Lady Macbeth, 1:5) from hell to help with her plans. Macbeth fears that if he kills Duncan all of ‘heaven’s cherubim’ will be horrified and when he goes to murder the king he says the act will lead Duncan to ‘heaven or to hell’ (Macbeth, 2:1). By the end of the play, hellish imagery is used to describe the ‘hell-hound’ Macbeth and the ‘fiend-like’ Lady Macbeth.
How many examples of religious imagery can you find in the play? Is there more associated with hell or heaven? Are certain characters associated with one rather than the other?

Disease Imagery

Lady Macbeth uses lots of disease imagery when talking about Macbeth’s lack of courage. She fears he is without the ‘illness’ to murder Duncan in Act 1 Scene 5, calls him ‘green and pale’ (Lady Macbeth, 1:7) and ‘infirm of purpose’ (Lady Macbeth, 2:2). As the Macbeths become more riddled with guilt, his mind is ‘full of scorpions’ and the doctor cannot treat Lady Macbeth’s ‘mind diseased’. Under the tyranny of Macbeth’s reign, Scotland becomes diseased too. Later in the play, the thanes come as ‘med’cine of the sickly weal’ (Caithness, 5:2) of the kingdom.
Take a closer look at the extract from Act 2 Scene 4. What does this imagery tell us about the state of the country? Do you think these events have really happened?

Thinking about Act 2 Scene 4, we’ve started to look at what the disease imagery and word choices in the scene tell us about the state of Scotland. This scene between Ross and the Old Man uses images of a diseased and distorted nature to convey the chaos of the kingdom after Macbeth takes the throne. In the 2018 production the Old Man's lines are delivered by the Porter. What effect do you think this would have?

See if you can complete the grid and finish four points which explain what this language shows at this point in the play.

What else can I do to explore the imagery of disease?

Look at Act 4 Scene 3. How do Macduff and Malcolm talk about Scotland? Notice how they personify the land as a wounded woman. Why do you think the men, and later the other thanes, talk about their country in this way?
Lady Macbeth suffers greatly in Act 5 and is tended to by her waiting-woman and a doctor. The doctor tells Macbeth that there is no medicine that can help her. Look at Macbeth’s response in Act 5 Scene 3. What is his attitude to medicine? Consider where medicine and cures are mentioned at other points.

Analysing the Themes

As with all Shakespeare’s plays, there are lots of themes that appear in Macbeth. It’s a great idea to keep a list of key quotes and examples of these themes in each act as you go through the play, looking at where they come up.

Here are three themes to look out for:

Theme of Ambition

Macbeth is set in a hierarchical world in which loyalty and service to the king is rewarded with titles and land. When Macbeth is successful in battle, King Duncan rewards him with the title ‘Thane of Cawdor’ because he is ‘worthy’. All of the characters have hopes for their own futures and the future of Scotland; however, ambition that oversteps the moral boundaries is condemned and punished. In the opening scene, we hear about ‘merciless’ rebels who have attempted to seize power and are overthrown and executed.
Consider each character’s ambition for the future of their family, country and self. Are there any characters without ambition? Look at how characters talk about ambition in Act 1. What do you think the rules are surrounding ambition? When does it become an evil act to pursue your ambition?

Theme of Supernatural

The very first thing we learn at the opening of the play is that there is a supernatural force, which is first seen in the form of the three witches. They appear in ‘thunder and lightning’ and plot to meet with Macbeth, before calling to their supernatural familiars and casting a strange spell. Both Macbeth and Banquo believe in the witches' magic and power. This is a world where magic is a real presence, although it is associated with the devil. In Act 1 Lady Macbeth calls on ‘spirits’ and ‘murd’ring ministers’ to help her achieve her aims; in Act 2 Macbeth sees a ghostly dagger on his way to murder Duncan; and in Act 3 he sees a terrifying apparition of his murdered friend Banquo. After Macbeth’s last visit to the witches in Act 4 Scene 1, the supernatural presences disappear, although their influence remains.
Think about why the characters in this play are so ready to believe in spells, witchcraft and ghosts. Look at the language they use when they talk about the supernatural. How does it compare to how they talk about religion in the play? Compare this with how Macduff speaks about magic. Why do you think he views the supernatural in a different way?

Theme of Fate

The witches make several prophecies and they all appear to come true. In Act 1, the first prophecy is realised almost immediately when Macbeth is made Thane of Cawdor; this is proof for both men of the witches’ power and Banquo remarks ‘What, can the devil speak true?’ (Banquo, 1:3). However, as soon as Lady Macbeth hears of the prophecy, she wants to speed up what has been ‘promised’. When Macbeth commits murder to achieve the crown, it becomes ambiguous whether his fate is predestined or if he has been influenced to make choices out of his own free will. Macbeth also tries to cheat fate by sending murderers after Banquo and Fleance in order to avoid the witches’ prophecy about them coming true.
Look at the prophecies that the three witches make and the moments when they come true. Do you believe in their magic, or could there be another explanation? Are there any that you cannot explain? Do you think the prophecies would have come true without Macbeth’s intervention? Do you think the prophecy about Banquo's sons will come true?

Read Act 1 Scene 7 looking for any references to Lady Macbeth and Macbeth's ambition. See if you can complete the grid and finish four points which explain what this language shows about ambition at this point in the play.

What else can I do to explore the theme of ambition?

Look at the section on Lady Macbeth’s language, which explores the ‘unsex me here’ soliloquy where Lady Macbeth asks the spirits to rid her of her female qualities and achieve her ambitions. Does she use language that is similar to the men’s? How do you think she defines ambition and courage?
Compare this scene with Act 4 Scene 3 in which Macduff and Malcolm talk about their ambitions for Scotland’s future. Consider how they talk about the country as a whole, whereas the Macbeths talk solely about their individual hopes for success.

Teacher Notes

The following sheet provides further information on themes in the text.

Macbeth Themes

You can also print the PEE grids from each of the sections on this page to help students explore the language of central characters and some of the imagery used in more detail.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Macbeth — Blood in the Play “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare

Blood in The Play "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare

Categories: Macbeth William Shakespeare

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Published: Sep 20, 2018

Words: 1267 | Pages: 3 | 7 min read

Macbeth essay outline, macbeth essay example, introduction.

Definition and significance of blood in "Macbeth"

Blood as a Symbol

Blood associated with violence, death, and guilt
Blood's role in revealing dramatic functions

Blood Motif in Key Scenes

Act 1, Scene 1: Duncan's reaction to the wounded soldier
Act 2, Scene 1: Macbeth's hallucination of a bloody dagger
Act 2, Scene 2: Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's discussion of the murder
Act 2, Scene 2: Macbeth's guilt about the blood on his hands
Act 2, Scene 2: Lennox's description of the guards with blood
Act 2, Scene 3: Banquo's reference to Duncan's death as a "bloody piece of work"
Act 4, Scene 1: Second Apparition"A bloody Child"
Act 5, Scene 1: Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking and guilt about blood
Blood as a symbol of guilt and its impact on characters in "Macbeth"

Works Cited

Bevington, D. (2005). Introduction. In Macbeth (pp. 1-37). Cambridge University Press.
Bloom, H. (2008). Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations: Macbeth. Infobase Publishing.
Chaudhuri, S. (1996). Macbeth: A Study in Horror. Shakespeare Survey, 49, 87-97.
Felperin, H. (1984). The Uses of Invention: Shakespeare's Sonnets and Macbeth. Shakespeare Quarterly, 35(1), 1-14.
Garber, M. (1984). Macbeth's Eyes and the Audience's Ear. Representations, 8, 45-64.
Greenblatt, S. (1988). Invisible Bullets: Renaissance Authority and Its Subversion, Henry IV and Henry V. In Shakespearean Negotiations: The Circulation of Social Energy in Renaissance England (pp. 21-65). University of California Press.
Kliman, B. W. (1988). Blood Imagery in Macbeth. Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, 34(3), 51-66.
Muir, K. (2005). Shakespeare's Tragic Sequence. Routledge.
Orgel, S. (1989). Nobody's Perfect: Or Why Did the English Stage Take Boys for Women? South Atlantic Quarterly, 88(1), 7-29.
Shakespeare, W. (2003). Macbeth. (J. Crowther, Ed.). Spark Publishing.

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