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Macbeth

Blood Images found in Macbeth

          "For brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name- / Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel / Which smok'd with bloody execution, / Like valor's minion carv'd out his passage…" (Act I, Scene 2, Lines 19-21) Blood is symbolic of bravery and courage in this passage. Bloodshed for a noble cause is good blood. However, Macbeth's character changes throughout the play are characterized by the symbolism in the blood he sheds. Before Duncan's murder, Macbeth imagines seeing a dagger floating in the air before him. He describes it, "And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, / Which was not so before. There's no such thing / It is the bloody business which informs / Thus to mine eyes." The blood imagery in this passage refers to treason, ambition, and murder. This is a contrast the meaning of blood in the beginning of the play. Blood, once seen as a positive value, is now associated with evil. This imagery also shows the beginning of Macbeth's character transformation from a person of nobility, honesty, and bravery to that of treachery, deceit, and evil. In William Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, the use of blood images serves as a way to represent treason, guilt, murder, and death. Shakespeare's use of blood imagery is significant; he uses it to develop the character of Macbeth and the unfolding events of the drama.

The first reference to blood is in Macbeth's soliloquy in Act 2, Scene 1, Lines 33-61, when he sees the bloody dagger floating in the air before him. In line 46 he sees "on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood", this means that there is blood on the handle. This is implying that the dagger was used on someone. Shakespeare most likely put this in as premonition of murder and death to come later in the story.

The next reference, although indirect, in Act 2, Scene 2, Lines 5-11 is when Lady Macbeth says she will smear the blood from the dagger on the faces and hands of the servants she drugged. In Act 2, Scene...