Macbeth Blood Quotes Analysis

Words: 516
Pages: 3

Throughout the play, Macbeth, blood symbolizes guilt. Whenever a character does something horrible, they reference blood on their hands. The majority of the time blood is mentioned the character is hallucinating it. It is a sign of a guilty conscious.

“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/ Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather/ The multitudinous seas incarnadine,/ Making the green one red.”

The first quote is from act 2 scene 2 line 63 and page 29. Macbeth is talking to Lady Macbeth right after he killed King Duncan. At this time, Macbeth regrets his actions and feels awful. He says that he will never be able to clean his hand instead he will only corrupt the waters. This quote is very important to the story. Duncan’s
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The speaker is Lady Macbeth. She said this towards the very end of the play. She is speaking to herself. A doctor and servant lady were listening to her. Throughout the story, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were responsible for multiple murders. In the beginning she said that she did not feel guilt for Duncan’s murder. She said that a little water would clean her. As the story progresses, we see the new queen’s mental health deteriorate because of her guilt. At this time, Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking around her room. She is clearly troubled and unstable. She is trying to wash her hands of the blood. At this time there is no blood on her hands. This is showing that Lady Macbeth is going crazy. The quote is important to the story because it shows how all of Lady Macbeth’s acts have effected her. During her rant, Lady Macbeth is admitting to her bloody acts. She talks about how the old man had so much blood; this is referring to Duncan’s death by stabbing. She mentions the Thane of Fife had a wife which is referring to the murder of Macduff’s family. Lady Macbeth did not assist with these murders but she knows that Macbeth did it and she feels guilty about it. The final murder she discusses is Banquo’s. Again, the queen did not actually help with this but she feels like this blood is on her hands. In the beginning of the story, Macbeth was not certain he wanted to act on the witches’ prophecy. Lady Macbeth was the one to convince him to kill Duncan to become king. She started Macbeth on his path of murder and it drives her insane to the point where she commits