Tracing the Word “Blood” in Macbeth Act 2 1. 2. 1. 45-46 a. Quotation and Speaker Macbeth: I see thee still/ Find on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood. b. Paraphrase and Clarification I can still see the spots of blood on this blade. Macbeth is hallucinating, the blood isn’t really there. c. Conclusions Macbeth sees blood on the blade as a sign that he must commit the murder, the evil act. Evil is represented by the presence of blood. 2. 2. 1. 48-49 a. Quotation and Speaker Macbeth: This is the bloody business which informs this to mine eyes. b.
Paraphrase and Clarification The evil deed (murder) that I’m about to do is making me see these things. c. Conclusions Bloody also represents evil here as Macbeth recognizes the murder is an evil deed. 3. 2. 2. 52-53 a. Quotation and Speaker Lady Macbeth: Go carry them and smear/ The sleepy grooms with blood. b. Paraphrase and Clarification Take the daggers and put them near the guards the cover them with blood. Lady Macbeth is telling Macbeth to frame the guards. c. Conclusions The literal meaning of blood is used here. However the theme Appearance vs. Reality can be applied as blood is used to make other people look guilty. . 2. 2. 58-60 a. Quotation and Speaker Lady Macbeth: If he do bleed/ I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal, / For it must seem their guilt. b. Paraphrase and Clarification When Duncan bleeds, cover the faces of the guards with blood so they look guilty. c. Conclusions As the previous passage, blood is used to change the appearance of these and the people found with it are deemed evil. 5. 2. 2. 63-64 a. Quotation and Speaker Macbeth: Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/ Clean from my hand? b. Paraphrase and Clarification Can all the water in the ocean wash the blood (guilt) from my hands? c.
The Essay on Macbeth, Evil
A critic has written that Macbeth wells up from a deep awareness of evil. This means that Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, shows what evil really is and what it can do. The imagery of Macbeth really is very dark throughout the play. There is a constant atmosphere of evil and gloom. When Macbeth says in lines 125-126, Act Three, Scene Four, Blood will have blood , the idea that killing will ...
Conclusions Blood represents guilt again here as well. 6. 2. 3. 94-95 a. Quotation and Speaker Macbeth: The spring, the hand and the fountain of your blood/ has stopped, the very source of it has stopped. b. Paraphrase and Clarification Your father has died. c. Conclusions Blood is used in this passage as a biological connection to another person. In this case, it’s the relation of Duncan and his sons. This is the first time it is used like this in this Act. 7. 2. 3. 98-101 a. Quotation and Speaker Lennox: Their hands and faces were all badg’d with blood/ So were their daggers which, unwip’d, we found/ Upon their pillows. . Paraphrase and Clarification They (the guards) were covered in blood, and so was their daggers which were under their pillows. c. Conclusions Blood represents guilt here as well as the guilt of the guards is determined by the presence of it 8. 2. 3. 108-109 a. Quotation and Speaker Macbeth: He’s silver skin lac’d with his golden blood/ And his gash’d stabs look’d like a breach in nature. b. Paraphrase and Clarification His pale skin was covered with his noble blood and the stabs on his body looked like nature itself had been harmed. c. Conclusions The king’s blood has been spilt which is a treacherous thing.
Nature itself is in turmoil because of how great this evil is. 9. 2. 3. 122-124 a. Quotation and Speaker Banquo: And when we have our naked frailties hid/ That suffer in exposure, let us meet/ And question this bloody piece of work. b. Paraphrase and Clarification Let’s get dressed in proper attire, then meet and figure this murder out. c. Conclusions Like in the second quote, bloody describes how evil and unnatural the murder is. 10. 2. 3. 135-137 a. Quotation and Speaker Donaldbain: Where we are/ There’s daggers in men’s smiles; the nea’er in blood. The nearer bloody. b. Paraphrase and Clarification If we still stay here, people will pretend to smile at us while hiding daggers. The closer one is related to Duncan, the more likely they will be killed. c. Conclusions There are two meanings to the word blood in this quote. The first one is the biological attachment (family ties) of Donaldbain and Malcolm to Duncan. The second connation given to the word blood is again the unnatural, evil act of murder, except in this case, they are referring to the murder of the two brothers not their father. 11. 2. 4. 5-6 a.
The Essay on Good vs. Evil 3
There are many concepts that are determined in the eye of the beholder. People have different morals; someone’s morals could be seen as corruption to someone else. What someone considers beautiful, another might consider appalling. A person’s definition of justice could be someone else’s definition of illegal. There are many factors as to why we all have different paradigms, such as the way we ...
Quotation and Speaker Ross: Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man’s act/ Threatened his bloody stage. b. Paraphrase and Clarification You can see it in the weather, nature is mad at what has happened and is threatening us. c. Conclusions This quote brings out the same idea of bloody as a synonym to evil or unnatural and how nature is “unhappy” with this. 12. 2. 4. 22 a. Quotation and Speaker Ross: Is’t known who did this more than bloody deed? b. Paraphrase and Clarification Do you know who committed the murder? c. Conclusions. Again, bloody is used as an adjective in place of the word evil.
General Conclusions: 1. In Act 2, blood has a negative connotation attached to it. It is used as a synonym to the word evil. You see this when people, such as Macbeth and Banquo, describe the wicked murder of Duncan as “bloody business. ” 2. Blood is also used to represent guilt. The guards, or grooms, appear guilty because their person and their daggers were covered with blood. Macbeth also refers to his own guilt as the blood on his hands. 3. The final way in which the characters use the word blood it to represent the family ties between Duncan and his sons.
The Shakespearean play of Macbeth is a story with great literary applications. It is full of complex themes, intriguing motifs and words with deeper meanings. In Act two, blood, one of these crucial words, is portrayed with a negative connotation. In this Act, blood is used to describe evil, indicate guilt, and represent one’s family ties. The beginning of Act two immediately commences with Macbeth hallucinating by seeing a knife covered with blood and takes it a sign he needs to commit treason. Macbeth recognizes how nature is, and will be, offended by the evil deeds of man, he murder. Ross is part of the other people realize this as it is expressed through his words, “Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man’s act/ Threatened his bloody stage” (2. 4. 5-6).
The Essay on Macbeth Reader Response, Act One
After reading Act one of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, I can already understand why it is called one of his darkest plays. I feel that this first act is just a sample of the darkness that will arise in the next acts. Seeing as the theme of darkness is so prevalent in this act, I was not at all surprised that blood was mentioned numerous times as a symbol of Macbeth’s guilt. I really like the ...
This shows that even Ross, as well as others, notices the turmoil in the weather because of the evil of murder. The second way in which the word blood is used is to signify the amount of a person’s guilt. Macbeth and his wife cover the grooms with blood knowing that it would appear they were the culprits in the assassination.
This was the initial assumption as everyone associated the presence of blood on their person, the guard’s, as an indication to their guilt. However, the greatest link of the words blood and guilt was displayed through Macbeth. When he said, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/ Clean from my hand? ” (2. 2. 63-64), the blood that he refers to is used figuratively to represent the guilt that he feels. Macbeth expresses his inner struggle with his morality as he realizes how he could never be rid of his great guilt.
Family is the final way blood is represented in Act two to show that anyone related to Duncan immediately poses as a threat to the throne, especially towards Macbeth. The reader immediately recognizes this through Malcolm’s word, “Where we are/ There’s daggers in men’s smiles; the nea’er in blood. / The nearer bloody” (2. 3. 135-137).
Blood is something to avoid as it not only represents evil but guilt and a death sentence if one is related to the deceased. All these things show us that blood is not a good omen in Act two of Macbeth.
