According to the Cambridge Dictionary, Guilt is “a feeling of anxiety or unhappiness that you have done something immoral or wrong, such as causing harm to another person.” In William Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, Shakespeare uses blood imagery which symbolizes murder and guilt to show that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s characters emotionally evolve inversely. Macbeth transitions from a guilt-ridden to a guilt free, callous person while Lady Macbeth transitions from a guilt-free, callous person to a guilt-ridden person.
In Act 2 of the play, Macbeth kills King Duncan and he feels so guilty and frightened. Lady Macbeth had persuaded him in murdering Duncan by saying that he wouldn’t a man but will be a coward if he doesn’t kill Duncan. Even though Macbeth had followed her orders, his heart wasn’t completely in it and thus he was now engulfed with shock and guilt. By using blood, Shakespeare portrays this guilt throughout the act. For instance, when Macbeth is trying to wash the blood from his hands after killing Duncan, he asks, “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” (2.2.78-81). Macbeth uses this allusion to explain that he feels as if all the water in the world couldn’t wash off the …show more content…
Macbeth transitions from a guilt-ridden to a guilt free person while Lady Macbeth transitions from a guilt-free to a guilt-ridden person. As the Cambridge Dictionary had stated, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth felt that they had done “something immoral or wrong” but the only difference between the two is that they had their realizations inversely. Therefore, the blood imagery shows the readers that not only did Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s characters evolve emotionally, but that the evolution occurred at the same time but in
In Act 2 of the play, Macbeth kills King Duncan and he feels so guilty and frightened. Lady Macbeth had persuaded him in murdering Duncan by saying that he wouldn’t a man but will be a coward if he doesn’t kill Duncan. Even though Macbeth had followed her orders, his heart wasn’t completely in it and thus he was now engulfed with shock and guilt. By using blood, Shakespeare portrays this guilt throughout the act. For instance, when Macbeth is trying to wash the blood from his hands after killing Duncan, he asks, “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” (2.2.78-81). Macbeth uses this allusion to explain that he feels as if all the water in the world couldn’t wash off the …show more content…
Macbeth transitions from a guilt-ridden to a guilt free person while Lady Macbeth transitions from a guilt-free to a guilt-ridden person. As the Cambridge Dictionary had stated, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth felt that they had done “something immoral or wrong” but the only difference between the two is that they had their realizations inversely. Therefore, the blood imagery shows the readers that not only did Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s characters evolve emotionally, but that the evolution occurred at the same time but in