Motifs In Macbeth

The works of Shakespeare have transcended the ages. They remain as highly regarded today as ever, and will likely remain an invaluable teaching tool for years to come. Shakespeare employed multiple themes throughout his writing career. One of his more popular plays, Macbeth, has a very clear and defined theme. The story of Macbeth focuses not on crime but sin.

After Macbeth kills Duncan and the two guards he says, “I am afraid to think what I have done; / Look on't again I dare not” (Find Quote Location). Macbeth is afraid of what he has done, he feels guilty for his crimes almost immediately after he has committed them. Readers’ are able to relate to the emotion of guilt, this causes an understanding between the readers and Macbeth which causes them to sympathize with him. Macbeth shows the emotion of guilt once more when he sees the ghost of Banquo.

The motif for this act is blood because there is the killing of Duncan. The bloody guilt of Duncan is shown throughout the thesis.The quote shows when Macbeth is thinking of Duncan’s funeral after he killed him, ”Outran the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan”Shakespeare(2.3.127). Macbeth shed a lot of blood through the thesis as he kills the king, Duncan, and the guards.Lady Macbeth tries to get rid of the murder weapons so she is acting like death is just an act for her and she doesn’t really care who dies,”Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead”Shakespeare(2.2.68).Lady Macbeth is experienced on how to kill Duncan and cover up the murder so she has done something that has killed people or she is a psychopath.

A recurring motive to continue the feeling of guilt was blood that liberated Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s hands. After Macbeth killed Duncan he says to Lady Macbeth, “What are my hands? ha! they pluck out my eyes./ Will the great Neptune’s oceans wash the blood / Clean my hands?” (Act ll, scene 2, lines 80-82).

In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, motifs are used to help the progression of story’s plot, and five significant motifs are present throughout the plot. The motifs provide a more in-depth meaning and understanding of the plot. Nature and its disruption are one of the central motifs utilized by Shakespeare in this play. The disruption of nature occurs in the work when there is an immoral act or act against the appointment of God. Nature disrupted in Macbeth conveys to the reader severity of things, how every action has a sequence, and foreshadow events to come in the plot.

A motif is a repeating symbol that takes on a figurative meaning. A motif can be an object, a color, the weather, or even an idea or a concept. Motifs are usually used to establish a certain mood or a theme, and they have a symbolic meaning. For example, in a fairy tale, some motifs would be: the handsome prince, the wicked witch, talking animals, and magic fairies. Another example would be the song “Beasts of England” in Animal Farm by George Orwell, and it is a motif that mainly serves as propaganda to the animals. In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, motifs are seen all throughout the book, like the motif of blood and how it represents guilt. The motifs of blood, sleep, and birds affect the character development and relationship of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

Throughout the entire play, Macbeth, Shakespeare shows how Macbeth’s guilt negatively affected him emotionally as time went on. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth has a minor emotional breakdown after he kills King Duncan. This emotional breakdown shows the guilt that Macbeth felt, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand” (ii.2.63-64.29). Shakespeare uses this analogy to show the magnitude of his crime and how that guilt can not wash off and go away easily. In the time period that Macbeth was in killing a king was a major crime, so him not being able to wash the blood away helps create the idea that Macbeth knows what he has done and feels the sin that he has committed.

One theme in William Shakespeare's Macbeth is their is consequences for your actions. A recurring motif that shakespeare uses is guilt and it represents how one's actions will always have consequences. “More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know, But the worst means for the worst.” (Shakespeare 46). The motif represents that idea that once you do something wrong or harmful to someone, it can never be undone.

A ladder is often used for support and to link one’s steps to reach what is at the top. Like the ladder, motifs are often used to support and lead to themes within a piece of writing. This can be seen in William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth. Shakespeare tends to use motifs to consistently highlight the messages in his play. Specifically, the motif of prophecies and hallucinations is used to repeatedly show that often times when circumstances are shown to be in favour of oneself, one becomes blinded from reality.

Shakespeare uses the title character of Macbeth to effectively develop the theme of guilt and conscience in his play. Several times in the play we see Macbeth’s character crumbling as a result of a guilty conscience. At

In relation, Shakespeare uses characters in order to raise the appeal of themes being presented. A character which has the largest influence on the play is Macbeth. Macbeth is someone who is tortured by the pain of the words of those around him. Macbeth is influenced heavily by the three witches who prophesize that he is going to

Every one of Shakespeare 's plays are heavily imbedded with motifs. A motif is any element, subject, idea or concept that is constantly present through the entire body of literature. (motif) I chose to examine the play Macbeth. It is a very intense play full of violence, betrayal, and even the supernatural. It is well known to be saturated with themes and motifs that are repeated throughout the play. These motifs are important because they often foreshadow events on the play. They also create a atmosphere that helps shape the events of the play. I am going to focus on two motifs that seem to play a heavy role in the storyline of Macbeth. The two I have chose to focus on are the motifs of blood and nature. Since Macbeth is know for its violence blood is a very important part of the play. Nature also is representative of things to come and upsetting the natural balance of things. These are only a fraction of motifs that are present in this tragic play.

Blood is a perversion of nature, when there is blood, there is murder. After Macbeth murders Duncan, Macbeth has blood on his hands. There is physical blood on Macbeth’s hands which he can wash off with water. But, Macbeth goes on to say, “Will all great Neptune’s oceans wash this blood clean from my hand?” (Shakespeare 2.2.58-59), showing there is guilt setting into his mind already and he cannot wash it from his now stained hands. No amount of water in the world would be able to ever wash away the blood that has been spilled on Macbeth’s conscience. Nothing can ever wash away the guilt of killing Duncan (Blood Symbolism in Macbeth by William Shakespeare). Even after Macbeth realizes that he cannot escape the guilt of killing Duncan, he continues, even to go on killing his best friend Banquo. Instead of killing Banquo himself, Macbeth has people go out and kill him. After Banquo is killed by murderers, Macbeth sees his ghost appear at dinner. Macbeth starts screaming at Banquo however no one else can see him. Macbeth sees Banquo and feels the guilt weighing down on his conscience. Macbeth becomes scared of Banquo. “It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood” (Shakespeare 3.4.22). The combination of the fear and insanity all adds to his guilt. “All causes shall give way. I am in blood. Stepp’d in so far that, should

It's not until after the murder of King Duncan that Macbeth’s guilt begins to manifest. This is expressed through Macbeth’s obsession with King Duncan's blood staining his hands when Macbeth states:

William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth tells the story of a brave Scottish general named Macbeth, and how a prophecy told by three witches gave him enough courage to commit several murders all in the sake of his political ambition. In various scenes throughout the play we see guilt as a recurring theme affecting both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. In Act 2, scene 2—directly after the murder of King Duncan—Macbeth stumbles in with bloody hands and clear reaction of guilt as he says “What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes. Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” (2.2.62-64). Shakespeare uses a few literary devices in this scene to convey Macbeth’s feeling of guilt. Firstly, he uses the metaphor that these hands in front of him will pluck out his eyes. He does not mean this literally but instead that he will go blind from looking at them much longer because they are covered in blood. Shakespeare then goes on to use exaggeration with the phrase “will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” meaning that it would take a great ocean of the Roman god of the sea Neptune to wash the blood from his hand, not just any lake. Lastly Shakespeare uses a rhetorical question to emphasize the magnitude of guilt Macbeth is feeling. Macbeth asks himself if the whole ocean will wash the blood clean from his hands, and clearly it will not. This is because the blood on his hands is no only physical but metaphorical. Additionally there is the idea that he cannot wash this guilt away. In the next line Macbeth realizes that he cannot simply wash the blood away in the ocean and that if he did the “multitudinous seas” would “incarnadine, making the green one red” (2.2.65-66). Essentially there is so much metaphorical blood on the hands of Macbeth that if he were to wash them in the ocean, it would turn the