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William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, a classic and well-known Renaissance tragedy, features a theme of evil that correlates with the guilt felt by the characters who commit murder. Macbeth, a Thane of Scotland hoping to one day become king, dares to listen to his wicked spouse and complete any task necessary to take over the throne, even if it means committing the most evil of crimes. Little does Macbeth know that committing this treason will come back to haunt his family and eat away the conscience of Lady Macbeth until it gets the best of her. Shakespeare uses the motifs of blood and sleeplessness to show how the murders that are committed by the Macbeth family create feelings of guilt and evil, which is all due to a lust for total power.
In Acts I and II of the play, the motifs of blood and sleeplessness demonstrate the themes of evil and inevitable guilt felt by the Macbeth family. An example of how blood shows the evil of their plan for power is when Macbeth is in his castle and thinking that “We still have judgment here; that we but teach. Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return to plague the inventor: this even-handed justice commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice” (I.vii.8-11). By calling Lady Macbeth’s instructions bloody, Macbeth infers that the plan brewing in his wife’s mind is evil and unethical. At this point Macbeth is extremely uneasy about the plan, but realizes the positive aspects that will arise from it if it actually works, failing to recognize the negative ones. Another instance in which blood shows the evil behind this plan is when Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are discussing it, and Macbeth asks, “When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two of his own chamber and used their very daggers, that they have done't? (I.vii.83-85).The blood that Macbeth speaks of stands for not only the evil of executing King Duncan, but also the wickedness of blaming the murder of Duncan on the guards to save his own guilt....