In the play Macbeth, blood is used to show regret and guilt in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth s lives. It also represents Macbeth s untamed killing spree. It also represents Lady Macbeth losing her sanity. In addition it represents the end of Macbeth. In Act I, Scene ii, Duncan asks, What bloody man is that? (1). He is talking about the sergeant who is coming with a report that Scotland defeated Norway in the war. The sergeant told Duncan that it was brave Macbeth who helped them win the war.
The sergeant says, Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel,/ Which smoked with bloody execution (I,ii,16-18). This description of Macbeth s sword is foreshadowing his untamed killing spree. Next in Act I, Scene v, during Lady Macbeth s unsexing scene, she says, make thick my blood,/ Stop up the access and passage to remorse/ That no compunctious visitings of nature/ Shake my felt purpose (43-46). Lady Macbeth is asking the spirits to take all of her womanly features, so that she will not feel remorse, and can assist her husband in the murdering of King Duncan.
Later in Act I, Scene vii, Macbeth is talking about his plan to kill Duncan: But in these cases/ We still have judgment here; that we but teach/ Bloody instructions, which being taught return (9-10). Macbeth is talking about how he is going to kill King Duncan with his instructions. Macbeth is trying to find the best way to kill Duncan. In the next act, Act II, Scene i, during Macbeth s dagger scene, he says, Mine eyes are made the fools o the other senses,/ Or else worth all the rest: I see the still;/ And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood (46).
Macbeth sees a floating dagger in front of him, leading him to Duncan s chamber. In the same scene Macbeth says, There s no such thing:/ It is the bloody business which informs/ Thus to mine eyes (49). Macbeth is trying to deny that he is seeing the dagger. He says it is the plan for killing Duncan that makes him see this. Next in Act II, Scene ii, Lady Macbeth says, If he do bleed,/ I ll gild the faces of the grooms withal,/ For it must seem their guilt (66-68). She is going to wipe Duncan s blood on the guards, so it will look like they did it. She does not want any evidence to point at them.
Later in Act II, Scene iii, Macbeth says, the fountain of your blood;/ Is stopp d (106). Macbeth is telling Duncan s sons that their father is dead. In the same scene Lennox says, Those of his chamber, as it seem d, had done t:/ Their hands and faces were all badged with blood (111). Lennox is telling Malcolm and Donaldbain who murdered their father. Also in that scene, Macbeth says, Here lay Duncan,/ His silver laced with his golden blood,/ And his gash d stabs look d like a breach in nature (123). Macbeth is saying that Duncan s murder is going to disturb nature.
Later in this scene, Banquo says, And question this most bloody piece of work (143). Banquo is asking why they would have a reason to kill King Duncan. In the last part of this scene, Donaldbain says, There s daggers in men s smiles: the near in blood,/ The nearer bloody (158-159). Donaldbain is saying he does not think that the guards murdered his father, but someone who wanted his power. In the same act, in Scene iv, Ross says, Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man s act,/ Threaten his bloody stage (6-7). Ross is explaining that the murdering of Duncan has upset nature s balance.
In the same scene Ross asks, Is t known who did this more than bloody deed (27). Ross is asking MacDuff if they know who killed Duncan. In the next act, Act III, Scene i, Macbeth says, So is he mine, and in such bloody distance (128). Macbeth is discussing killing Banquo with the two murderers. In Scene iv, Macbeth is explaining to his wife that he sees Banquo s ghost, he says, Blood hath been shed ere now (88). After all of the guests leave the banquet, Macbeth is talking to Lady Macbeth, and he says, It will have blood: they say blood will have blood (144).
In the last part of this scene, Macbeth says, I am in blood/ Stepp d in so far that, should I wade no more,/ Returning were as tedious as go o er (158-160). Macbeth is saying that he is in so far with all the killing that he can not get out. Next in Act IV, Scene I, the bloody child says, Be bloody, bold and resolute; laugh to scorn/ The power of man, for none of woman born/ Shall harm Macbeth (85-87). The Apparition is telling Macbeth that no man born from a woman can kill him. In Scene iii, MacDuff says, Bleed, bleed, poor country:/ Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure,/ For goodness dare not check thee (36-38).
MacDuff is talking about all of the murders and bad times that his country is going through. Later on in the same scene Malcolm says, I grant him bloody (66). They are talking about how bad of a person Macbeth is. In the next act, Act V, Scene i, Lady Macbeth keeps seeing this spot of blood on her arm that will not go away. She says, Out, damned spot! out, I say (30). In this scene Lady Macbeth is losing her sanity because all of the secrets she kept inside for so long. In the same scene Lady Macbeth says, Here s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand (42-43).
She still smells the blood on her hand, and she says that the best smelling perfumes could not take the smell away. In the last act, Act V, Scene vi, MacDuff says, Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death (11). MacDuff is describing the trumpeters as they sound the attack. The use of blood in this play was used to explain all of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth s murders and their guilty consciouses. By the end of the play, Lady Macbeth has lost her sanity from keeping all of it inside. Macbeth, by the end of the play, has killed so many people that it seems like the first murder was nothing.
