Written by William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Macbeth” is a play related to the story of the real Scottish king Macbeth, which is frequently presented as a tale of excessive desire for power and betrayal of friends. The motifs are repeated from scene to scene, focusing the reader’s attention on certain themes, such as lust for power and the inability to escape the punishment of conscience. Comparing two scenes related to King Macbeth and his wife is a convenient way to interpret the work more thoroughly by analyzing repetitive motifs.
The motif of guilt for the murder and inner regret is one of the play’s central themes. The first episode to analyze is scene four (act three) when one of the murderers reports to Macbeth about Banquo’s death and Fleance’s escape (Shakespeare 76). Returning to the table, the king notices the bloody Ghost in his place. The author puts the emphasis on the blood (blood on the murderer’s face, a slit throat image, gory locks, and cold blood) (Shakespeare 79). Hence, the details highlighted by the author reflect the hero’s thoughts. The images related to the death and cemetery arise within the scene, for example, “maggot pies” and “bones” (Shakespeare 83). Thus, the reader might get closer to understanding the end of the play.
It should be mentioned that Lady Macbeth considers the king’s confusion related to the Ghost as fear and tries to convince others that the king does not feel well. According to the previous scenes, she is more cruel and bloodthirsty than her husband. She encouraged him to commit murder while the king was in doubt. What is more, she is the person who removed the consequences of the murder, while Macbeth was in psychological distress after what had happened.
The second episode to analyze is the first scene of act five, depicting the terrible state of Lady Macbeth, wandering around the castle with her eyes open and talking about the murdered Blanco. She rubs her hands, thinking that there is a blood spot on them (Shakespeare 121). Moreover, she feels the “smell of the blood” and believes that no perfume will remove this smell (Shakespeare 122). In other words, the blood motif reappears, as in the scene mentioned above. Thus, both scenes focus on the motive of blood, while the blood is not real. In the first episode, the blood appears as a memory of the murder of Banquo and in connection with the Ghost, and in the second – the blood is an unreal spot created by Lady Macbeth’s sick mind.
Nevertheless, this episode differs from the first one regarding the heroine. In the first scene, she called Macbeth sick, and she was not afraid of anything. Now Lady Macbeth is sick, and a doctor was called for her. It can be said that no one, even the one who was not initially afraid of killing someone, will escape punishment. One will be punished by other people, as it happened to Macbeth, or by one’s own mind, as it happened to Lady Macbeth who committed suicide.
To conclude, there are some similarities between the two scenes, which both contain the motif of blood and disease. However, there are several differences in the behavior of Lady Macbeth, who could not escape insanity because of the guilt of the murder, which was committed by her and her husband. Thus, both the motif of blood and death in the scenes are crucial for the theme of the inevitability of punishment.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Project Gutenberg, 1997. Web.