The Role and Evolution of Blood Imagery in William Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’

Imagery and its Evocative Power in "Macbeth"

Often, in literature, imagery is used to depict different pictures or themes in the reader’s mind. Macbeth is a play written by the Elizabethan poet, actor, and playwright William Shakespeare, who is renowned as one of the greatest writers of the English language and as the greatest playwright of his era. Just like many of his famous pieces of work, Shakespeare used considerable amounts of literary devices that brought the story to life.

Imagery is used throughout literature to help the readers create ideas in their minds, like pictures. In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare’s use of imagery symbolizing blood all the way through the play is used to portray certain characters' influences and events.

Blood is depicted in everyone’s mind as a symbol of death or hurt, which gives Shakespeare a platform to create representations in the reader’s head. In Macbeth, the main character, Macbeth, is found in this realm of powerful figures. Macbeth had been given multiple prophecies, and one was that he would be the King. To fulfill this prophecy, Macbeth’s decision to kill the King leaves him with immense emotional instability and guilt. In the play, Macbeth expresses, “I see thee still And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood.” This represents the guilt Macbeth is experiencing, saying that he still sees the blood on his knife and the blood in the dungeon. The guilt is easily symbolized by the blood in this because after he committed the crime, he still saw the blood, and it was bothering him severely.

Interpreting the Blood Motif and its Implications

The prophecies drive Macbeth to keep killing for power, thus creating more imagery of blood and animals with ravenous instincts. Other characters use blood to depict the ruthlessness of the murders or characterizations of their dead bodies. But in Act 3, Macbeth says the famous line, “Blood will have Blood.” This quote is Macbeth introducing many different possible interpretations for not only the play but for real life too. This could be Macbeth foreshadowing his own death, conveying that a murderer will always be discovered after someone commits a crime, or even just the rendition of the major principles of karma.

This can also introduce a sort of war feel, adding to the tensions from the suspicions towards Macbeth’s murders. Macbeth has not only been portrayed as a murderer throughout the drama but also a tyrant because of the grasp he attempted to have on his people and power. Macduff yells, “Bleed, bleed, poor country.” Scotland is shown as bleeding to represent its upcoming death because of Macbeth. Macbeth killed the beloved previous King and became hated as the King himself.

In conclusion, Shakespeare’s use of blood imagery is used in the play all the way through, making mental correlations in the reader’s mind subconsciously. Only a good writer can paint a mental picture in their reader’s mind with such simplicity but also complexity. Shakespeare used blood as a symbol of more than just guilt, death, hurt, revenge, and murder. Using the word blood in more than 30 different lines. There were many different ways blood symbolized themes and emotions.

References

1. Shakespeare, W. (1623). Macbeth. London: First Folio.
2. Greenblatt, S. (2005). Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. W.W. Norton & Company.

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