The Symbols in Macbeth's Story

This essay that is being written by Victor Tamez is for the symbols in the Macbeth story. The symbol that is used the most in the Macbeth story is blood. There is so many sense with blood in it so let's get started. In Act 1 Lady Macbeth Quotes “(act 1,scene 5,line 40-41) Make thick my blood stop th’ access and passage to remorse. In this line here lady Macbeth says that because she is going to kill king Duncan and she doesn't want to feel sorry about it so she wants her blood to thicken. In ( act 2,scene 3, line 95) Lennox said “their hands and faces were all badged in blood” this means he thinks the guards killed king Duncan because they were covered in blood. In ( act 3,scene 4,line 12) Macbeth noticed blood on the murders face and says “There’s blood on thy face” stating that the murderer has blood on his face because he killed banquo. In ( act 4,scene 1, line 79-81) The second apparition stated that “Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn The power of man, for nun of women born shall harm Macbeth” she says this because the message is supposed to tell macbeth to basically have no fear in anyone born a women because they can't kill you. In (act 4, scene 1, lines 119-124) Macbeth says “the eighth appears who bears a glass Which shows me more, and some i see that twofold balls treble scepters carry. Horrible sight! Now i see ‘tis truth For the blood-boltered banquo smiles upon me and points at them for this” He says this long line because one of the nights have a ball and when Macbeth looks at it he sees Banquo's blood on his head looking down at him. So that raps it up for the symbol blood in the Macbeth story the next symbol is yet to come.

One item that is used alot is the dagger and that is what we are going to be talking about in this paragraph. The dagger is used most as a murder weapon in the Macbeth story so let's get to stabbing in the story. To start of act two scene one before the story starts back up shakespeare uses imagery so the reader can imagine macbeth following a dagger floating to the the king's chamber. In (act 2 scene 1 lines 32-44) “Is this a dagger which I see before me,the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.have thee not, and yet I see thee still. art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight? Or art thou but dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain? I see thee yet, in form as palpable as this which now I draw. Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going, and such an instrument I was to use.mine eyes are made the fools o' th' other senses”. So by reading that Macbeth is saying that the dagger is like a ghost that is kinda forcing him to do it it appears in front of him so now he has to go kill the king but at first in lines 32-37 he seems like he is just imagining the dagger and he is saying that his vision failed him and if he touch it is it going to feel the dagger as he can see it or not. So right now Macbeth is in total shock about the dagger and kinda doesn't know what to think or do and he is starting to lose his mind. While a lot of things is running thru his mind right now Macbeth knows if he does this there is no going back but if he does this he will be king and take the throne so he likes the idea of becoming king but the risk is great because if he gets caught killing the king his life and his wife life is over and there would be no mercy on Macbeth. But Macbeth stills go thru with it and doesn't turn back now and becomes king because of the the death of the King Duncan.

Now those symbols are out of the way stabbing the story and letting it soak up with blood let's get into the finer details of the Macbeth story Let's talk about sleep. Diving right in in Act 2 scene 2 lines 20) Macbeth says “there’s one did laugh in ‘s sleep, and one cried murder!” Macbeth is using sleep as a way to justify murder of Duncan saying duncan cried murder and macbeth laughed. Sleep means peace calm and murdering someone in there sleep you take that away and you laugh you're basically having fun while killing someone. Also in (act 2 scene 2 lines 35-40) Me thought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep the innocent sleep, sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care, the death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath, balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, chief nourisher in life’s feast” so with that being said Macbeth is starting to feel guilty about the murder of Duncan and his scenes are starting to mess with him because of it. Duncan was sleeping innocently when he was murdered by Macbeth. Macbeth starts hearing stuff like “sleep no more” he hears this like I said earlier sleep means peace and murdering someone takes away the peace in your life and now it haunts you. Looking back it stats “sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care” meaning Macbeth doesn't care about life and love so he has his sleeve raveled of care no let down because of him not caring about Duncan or how it makes him look as a person. It says here” the death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath, balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, chief nourisher in life’s feast” and this means Death is a everyday thing in life but death hurts people mentally and physically and death helps nature like the jokes they make blam mother nature death is apart of nature and also death is a chief nourisher in life feast now I like this part here what does that mean. Well it means that death is the way of life and people probably disagree “saying well nobody dies around me” but when people bring up death it's not just human death everywhere across this world something dies. It my be humans lions, tigers, and other animals that hunt or be hunted die and this ties into sleep because every night you go to sleep and wake up is a blessing and in the animal kingdom animals do like Macbeth did and kill their prey while they were asleep and referring back to that quote Death and sleep is life nourishment.

Now lets crawl down to the darkness/ the night of the story and see what we can find. In (act 1 scene 5 lines 47-51) lady macbeth says about the dark is “thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, that my sharp knife see not the wound it makes, nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark to cry”hold, hold!”” yeah right it got deep but going of what we just read is lady Macbeth is saying that darkness is so complete you cant see thru darkness and the knife she is about to use to kill someone won't be able to see the wound it makes in its victim. Later in (act 3 scene 1 lines 25-27) Banquo says “go not my horse the better, I must become a borrower of the night For a dark hour or twain” Now Banquo is saying basically that he is going to have to ride his horse a few hours after light falls. So that's all that i could find but going by the knowledge on Macbeth that the darkness or the night is where a lot happens like murders of duncan or when they framed the guards a lot happens in the middle of the night that people can't see because darkness is “thick” like lady Macbeth said darkness is the driver for most of the stuff in this story happens.

Now that we are done sleeping on blood and using daggers to cut thru the night lets bring it on home with the last topic bad weather. Well we all know bad weather its anything from rain drops from a summer shower all the way to hurricanes ripping thru a city so let's get to the Macbeth storms. In ( act 1 scene 1 lines 2-3) the witches say “ When shall we meet again? In thunder, lighting, or in rain?” The witches say that because lighting thunder and rain is bad things and they witches are bad so they meet only when something bad is about to happen. Also in (act 1 scene 3 lines 38) Macbeth says “ so foul and fair a day i have not seen” basically he is never going to see clear sky or no battle because storms are tied in with battle and until the battle ends the storms are staying. Now in (act 1 scene 6 lines 2) Duncan says The air nimbly and sweetly recommends itself unto our gentle senses”so what duncan is feelins is calm and relax as there is no war and he can just breathe and chill out. In (act 2 scene 4 lines 6) By the clock ,tis day, And yet dark night Strangles the traveling lamp”.Ross is saying that the bad weather is covering the earth like a blanket and not letting the sun peak in at all. So the symbols bad weather means war or death and or usually nothing good happens after either.

So after that analysation I know now that (dagger) means murder weapon. (Sleep) means peace or liberty so nobody should be disturbed. (Blood) mean death or pain in someone. (Bad weather) means something bad has happened or is happening. And last but not least (Night) means No light or not good.