Symbolism in Macbeth Essay

How Violence Leads to Guilt

In William Shakespeares play Macbeth, symbolism is used multiple times to demonstrate the overall theme of violence. Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses symbols of blood, sleep and hallucinations all to create a suspense that leads to violence which later leads to guilt. Shakespeare uses the symbol of blood to represent the guilt that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth feel after the violence has occurred. Sleep is used to symbolize the innocence, purity, and peace of mind, and when Macbeth kills Duncan it displays how violence occurs with sleep. Lastly, the symbol of hallucinations represents the outcome of violence which later turns into guilt. Symbolism is widely displayed in order to achieve the general topic of violence which later turns to guilt.

Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses the symbol of blood to represent the violence and guilt that occur throughout the play. The narrator states, This is a sorry sight. (2.2.27) Here Shakespeare begins to explore the blood as a symbol of violence because Macbeth is looking at his bloody hands and knows what he did was wrong. Macbeth then feels the guilt inside him and begins to anxiously think of what is going to happen if he gets caught. Shakespeare then states, My hands are of your colour. (2.2.77) When Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth that she will go put the daggers back, you think of her as all power and no guilt or second thoughts about what they have started. But, Lady Macbeth states but I shame/ to wear a heart so white. (2.2.77-78) which means she is starting to feel the guilt of the murder. She would rather kill then feel cowardly towards anyone. Being a woman in those days, she feels like she has to encourage herself to keep going. Later on in the play we see the evidence of blood and how the guilt of the characters is destroying their lives. Shakespeare states, Out, damned spot! Out, I say! (5.1.30) As Lady Macbeth, who once natively thought she could just wash her hands and forget Duncans murder is now sleepwalking and is so full of guilt and is imagining that she is washing her hands that are always covered in blood. Lady Macbeth then states, Yet who would have/ thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? (5.1.33-34) This also can relate to the guilt because is seems that the blood never goes away and that she may be stuck with the guilt for a very long time.

Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses the symbol of sleep to represent the innocence, purity, and peace of mind, and when Macbeth kills Duncan it displays how violence occurs with sleep. Shakespeare states, "There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried 'Murder!'" (2.2.29) To Macbeth, it's as though those men, even in their sleep, could see the blood from the murder on his hands. Moments later, still talking about the frightening things that happened to him, Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that he thought he heard a voice telling him that he would never sleep again. Shakespeare states:

Methought I heard a voice cry Sleep no more!

Macbeth does murder sleep, the innocent sleep,

Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care,

The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,

Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,

Chief nourisher in life's feast (2.2.44-49)

A "ravell'd sleave" is a tangled ball of thread or yarn. Macbeth uses it as a metaphor for the kind of frustration we experience when we have so many problems that we can't see the end to them. In this case, we often say we will "sleep on it" in order to get everything straight. Macbeth also compares sleep to a soothing bath after a day of hard work, and to the main course of a feast. To Macbeth, sleep is not only a necessity, but something that makes life worth living, and he feels that when he murdered King Duncan in his sleep, he murdered sleep itself. This ultimately leads to the guilt Macbeth feels about killing the King. When he killed the King, he killed his sleep. Another example of sleep being a leading cause to guilt is when Lady Macbeth starts to sleepwalk. The gentlewoman explains to the doctor what she has seen from Lady Macbeth and what she has been doing the past nights. The narrator states,

Rise

from her bed, throw her night-gown upon her, unlock her

closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon't, read it,

afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this

while in a most fast sleep (5.1.3-7)

The doctor then says, A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the/ benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching! (5.1.8-9) The doctor means that Lady Macbeth must be very troubled to act as though she is awake while she sleeps. But it is a significant observation; Lady Macbeth is not getting any sleep while she sleeps. Instead she relives the horrors of King Duncan's murder and of the visit of Banquo's ghost. When Macbeth was about to kill King Duncan a voice cried out, "Macbeth does murder sleep." The voice was right.

Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses the symbol of hallucinations to represent the outcome of violence which later turns into guilt. Shakespeare states, A dagger of the mind, a false creation, / Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? (2.1.45-46) When Macbeth is about to kill Duncan, Macbeth sees a dagger floating in the air. Covered with blood and pointed toward the kings chamber, the dagger represents the bloody course on which Macbeth is about to embark. As the play moves forward, we learn that Macbeth sets out murders to kill Banquo. When this is done we see the guilt build up in Macbeth, and almost see him admit to everything. The narrator states, Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake / Thy gory locks at me. (3.4.59-60) This represents the violence of Banquos death and the guilt that Macbeth has from seeing the ghost of his former friend. The ghost of Banquo is a sign that even though Macbeth was too be King, didnt need to kill anyone, but because he did that he would suffer the consequences of his actions.

In conclusion, Symbolism is widely displayed in order to achieve the general topic of violence which later turns to guilt. This is demonstrated in the symbols of blood; represented the guilt that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth feel after the violence, sleep; symbolizing innocence and peace of mind that later turns into the violence that occurs with sleep, lastly, the symbol of hallucinations which is represented by violence which later turns to guilt.

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