Examples Of Imagery In Macbeth

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Within the play, The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth sets off from being known as one of the bravest soldiers in Scotland to an appalling tyrant with his ambition getting the best of him. Macbeth is told of a prophecy by three witches early on in this tragedy and once the prophecy comes true, Macbeth is determined to become King, and he will kill anyone who tries to get in way. Obsessed with keeping his title as King, Macbeth puts his faith in the prophecies of the witches. He commits these horrible actions that he would never consider doing such as betraying friends and murder. Throughout the play, there are numerous images that drastically change from beginning to end. In the beginning of this play, the image of blood is established to represent bravery, but as the story unfolds and one foul play leads to another, the image blood is found to also…show more content…
“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” (Act ll Scene ii 59-62). Macbeth says this to Lady Macbeth right after he has murdered Duncan. In this quote, Macbeth has this powerful feeling of guilt within him and he explains how not even Neptune’s ocean can wash this blood off of his hands and clean himself. The guilt he is feeling makes Macbeth come to a conclusion that he has so much blood on his hands he can make the green seas red. Macbeth is starting to realize how evil this crime he committed is. Macbeth goes from being this brave, heroic warrior that the citizens of Scotland can look to for inspiration to a murder with an overwhelming feeling of guilt upon his soul. The image of blood in this passage signifies guilt because nothing he does can change the evil crime he has committed. Macbeth will have to live with this on his conscience for the rest of his

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