Madness & Blood

Blood symbolises many different things in _Macbeth_:

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Madness - Macbeth

Duncan's murder causes Macbeth to go mad. Many see him as a mad ruler because of his tyrannical nature.

After the murder of King Duncan, Macbeth believes he has ‘fil’d’ his mind (defiled it) (3,1).
This means that he has harmed his sanity and can’t have peace in his life: 'the gracious Duncan have I murder’d, / Put rancours in the vessel of my peace’. Committing the murder has disturbed him.

Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth ‘O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!’ (3,2).
This metaphor suggests that he cannot control his thoughts and that he lives under a constant threat.

When Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost, Lady Macbeth is angry.
She tells him it is his imagination, that he is seeing things that old women talk about in fairy tales: ‘This is the very painting of your fear; / This is the air-drawn dagger which you said / Led you to Duncan. O’ these flaws and starts, / Impostors to true fear, would well become / A woman’s story at a winter’s fire.’

When Caithness is talking about Macbeth before the English army advances on Dunsinane, he says: ‘Some say he’s mad; others that lesser hate him / Do call it valiant fury’ (5,2).
Many people think Macbeth's mad. His rule has become tyrannical and his supporters are abandoning him. He seems to be losing control.
Menteith thinks that this is because of Macbeth’s own inner turmoil (disorder). Killing King Duncan was so unnatural that he must feel torn inside: ‘Who then shall blame / His pester’d senses to recoil and start / When all that is within does condemn / Itself for being there’ (5,2).

By Act 5, Lady Macbeth has gone mad and is seen sleepwalking.

When she is sleepwalking, Lady Macbeth speaks in prose rather than the iambic pentameter, which is usually used for the speech of key characters.
This change from poetry to prose shows the breakdown of her mind. She is no longer in control of the words that come from her mouth (5,1).

Lady Macbeth’s words when sleepwalking show all the emotions and thoughts that she keeps bottled up when she is awake: ‘Here’s the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of / Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. O, O, O’ (5,1).
She is clearly distressed. This is shown by her cries of ‘O’. The adjective ‘little’ describing her hand makes her seem childlike and innocent.

She believes that she can’t get clean from her crimes.
This is very different to what she tells Macbeth after they have committed murder: ‘My hands are of your colour, but I shame / To wear a heart so white’ and ‘A little water clears us of this deed’ (2,2).
It’s clear that her subconscious (the part of your mind that notices and remembers information when you are not actively trying to do so) thinks that she can never get rid of the guilt that she feels from the murder.

Blood symbolises many different things in Macbeth:

In Act 1, Scene 2, blood symbolises Macbeth’s bravery. His sword ‘smok’d with bloody execution’.

The dagger which Macbeth sees as a vision becomes covered in blood.
He believes it is the consequence of this ‘bloody business’ – the plot to commit a murder – that makes him see it (2,1).

Macbeth doesn’t think he will be able to wash the blood from his hands after King Duncan’s murder: ‘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).
He thinks the blood is so great that it will stain the ocean red if he tries to clean his hands.
Blood symbolises the size of his crime: he will never be able to clean away the evidence of what he has done because it is so horrible.
The blood might wash away, but the memory of it, and the threat of consequences will always be there.

After King Duncan’s body is discovered, Donalbain warns Malcolm: ‘the nea’er in blood, / The nearer bloody.’
Blood here represents lineage and that they have the blood of their father in their veins. They are at risk of whoever has killed him harming them.

Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth: ‘It will have blood they say: blood will have blood’ (3,4).
This suggests that murder will lead to other murders and consequences. There will be retribution (punishment) if you kill.
He says: ‘I am in blood / Stepp’d in so far that I should wade no more’. It is impossible for Macbeth to go back now.

When she sleepwalks in Act 5, Scene 1, Lady Macbeth cannot get rid of the blood that she imagines is on her hands: ‘Out, damned spot! Out, I say!’
Again, blood represents the crimes that she has committed.