Blood as an Indicator: Carnage, Imagery, and Character Development in 'Macbeth'

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is filled to the brim with images of various sorts from nature to darkness to blood. It is near impossible to read a page from the script without coming across imagery of some kind or another. Because his writing seems so deliberate, it becomes possible to read into the imagery to discern what Shakespeare might have been trying to imply about his characters. The imagery of blood in Macbeth is indicative of the characters’ attitudes towards the heinous acts that they commit.

Imagery of blood is in abundance in Macbeth. It is present in thirty-nine lines that spread across all five acts (Open). In the second scene of the first act, there are two references to blood. “What bloody man is that?” (King 1.2.1) and “For brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name- \ Disdaining Fortune with his brandished steel, \ Which smoked with bloody execution” (Captain 1.2.18-20). Both of these quotes are talking about Macbeth who was an incredible soldier. The blood imagery continues throughout the play. In Act 3, Macbeth says, “Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold” (3.4.96). Macbeth says this to the ghost of Banquo who had just been murdered at Macbeth’s order. The imagery of blood is even present in the final scene of the play wherein Macbeth says to Malcolm, “My soul is too much charged \ With blood of thine already” (5.7.35-36). In this quote, he is referring to Malcolm’s wife and children whom Macbeth had slaughtered. It is apparent from the sheer number of uses of the word and the spread of the usage that blood was intended to be an important symbol in the play.

Of the thirty-nine lines in which the word or a form of the word “blood” is used in Macbeth, twenty-six of the lines are either spoken around the time of a murder or about a murder, so it is a fair claim that the imagery of blood is meant to be related to the murders. There are a few scattered uses of the word “blood” before Macbeth kills Duncan, but when the when they start plotting, the uses increase until they reach a crescendo right after the murder (2.3). There are four uses of the word before the plotting begins. There are three uses in the scenes where they are getting ready to commit the murder, then three immediately following the murder in the second scene of the second act. Blood is mentioned six times in the scenes directly following the murder. The mentions of blood slow down again, until the same pattern occurs for Banquo’s murder. As Macbeth plots Banquo’s death, the blood imagery creeps back up. It reaches the peak of the crescendo right after the deed has been committed with eight uses of “blood” in scene three of the fourth act. It is obvious that the blood imagery is tied to the murders.

This crescendo of blood imagery is important because it allows the reader to get a better sense of how the characters feel about the murders. Right before, during, and after the murder of Duncan, Macbeth feels incredibly guilty about it. This is made apparent through the use of imagery. He asks, “Is this a dagger which I see before me, \ The handle toward my hand?” (Macbeth 2.1.34-35). A few lines later, he states, “And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood \ Which was not so before” (Macbeth 2.1.46-47). Macbeth sees a dagger floating in front of him as he considers murdering the king. It becomes bloody. He ponders the vision aloud for a moment, remarking that it was indeed the weapon that he had planned on using. He reaches out to grasp the dagger, but he cannot touch it because it is not really there. This dagger is a manifestation of his apprehension. He is unable to quite catch hold of his nerves to go through with the murder at this point. He is standing around, waiting. When the dagger appears, he questions his senses much like he is questioning himself about the murder.

After he kills the king, the imagery becomes even more obvious. Macbeth asks,

Will all great Neptune’s oceans wash this blood

Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather

The multitudinous seas incarnadine

Making the green one red. (2.2.63-66)

In this quotation, Macbeth is expressing his horror at his blood-soaked hands. He is saying that there is so much blood on them that if he tried to wash them clean in the ocean, it would turn the water red. This imagery is expressing Macbeth’s horror at what he has done. As this scene continues, it is made clear that Macbeth is in somewhat of a stupor as a result of his actions. His wife is ordering him around, telling him to wash his hands and yelling at him for bringing the bloody daggers back to her. Macbeth feels guilty about the murder.

The blood imagery also gives the readers a chance to see how Lady Macbeth feels about the murders. It is not guilty. Lady Macbeth encourages Macbeth to kill Duncan, then treats the murder as if it were no big deal. Her nonchalance can be seen when she says, “Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead \ Are but as pictures” (2.2.56-57). This comes a few lines after she tells Macbeth to “smear \ The sleepy grooms with blood” (2.2.52-53). Here she is saying that she will paint the grooms’ faces with blood if Macbeth refuses to do it. There is nothing in the text that implies that she feels guilty for what she has coerced Macbeth into doing. She is wholeheartedly willing to blame two innocent men for the murder. Her entire attitude can be summed up with her line, “A little water clears us of this deed” (2.2.64). This implies that as they wash the literal blood from their hands, so goes the metaphorical blood.

As the play progresses, the imagery changes and so do the attitudes of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. After Macbeth has Banquo killed, he sees a vision of Banquo at a feast that Macbeth is hosting. He panics at first but ends up accepting his fate. “I am in blood \ stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more, \ returning were as tedious as go o’er” (3.4.138-140). This quote shows his sense of no turning back now. He is going to continue with the murders and his tyranny because he is so far gone that it is not worth it to turn back. This is a complete turnaround in his attitude towards the murders. He no longer consciously feels paralyzing guilt. Instead, he is in a river of blood that he feels he might as well just keep wading on through.

Lady Macbeth has the opposite change in attitude, as the imagery shows that she becomes immensely guilty over the murders as she tries to scrub out an invisible spot of blood on her hands. In what is arguably one of the most famous lines from the play, Lady Macbeth cries out, “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!” (5.1.30) as she rubs her hands as if she were washing them. The “spot” she is referring to is a little spot of blood that she sees without is actually being there. She says, “Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?” (5.1.33-34). She continues several lines later with, “What, will these hands ne’er be clean?” (5.1.48), bemoaning the never ending bloodshed that is a tyrant’s reign. She spends this whole scene sleep walking while rubbing her hands, never being able to be rid of the sight or smell of blood on her hands. She has switched places with Macbeth, as she is now the one who is guilt-stricken by their actions.

Throughout the play, blood remains an important aspect of the play’s imagery. It is there in every act and about half of the scenes. Blood is clustered around the murders for obvious reasons, but it is there for less obvious reasons as well. As well as depicting literal blood, most of the blood has a metaphorical meaning as well in Macbeth. The images of a bloody dagger, of Macbeth wading through a river of blood, and of Lady Macbeth desperately trying to scrub off a spot of blood on her hand all give readers a portal into the mind of the character. These images allow the audience to see how the characters feel about their actions. Shakespeare’s incredibly thoughtful usage of imagery has given an already deep play an extra layer of meaning.

Works Cited

Open Source Shakespeare: Search Shakespeare's Works, Read the Texts. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Ed. Robert S. Miola. Second ed. New York City: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2014. Print.