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READ THIS
We have not heard anything of Lady Macbeth since the ghost of Banquo scene.
Now we are suddenly confronted with a woman on the verge of despair, whose conscience is so
overwrought that she sleepwalks every evening, attempting vainly to wash the blood of Duncan from her
hands and soul.
THE THEME OF BLOOD
Blood is one of the major themes of Macbeth. How many times can you find the mention of blood?
"What bloody man is that?" asks King Duncan when the captain comes to tell of Macbeth's heroics.
Macbeth's sword "smoked with bloody execution", the captain tells the king. Then the captain tells
them that Macbeth caused the enemy to "bathe in reeking wounds" so as to "memorize another
Golgotha".
Macbeth sees a ghostly dagger leading him to Duncan's chamber, its blade covered with "gouts of
blood".
After the murder, Macbeth asks in anguish whether "all great Neptune's ocean [could] wash this blood
clean from [his] hand".
Lady Macbeth returns the bloody daggers and states that, "if he do bleed [she would] gild the faces of
the grooms withal".
She returns "with hands of your colour" but she is "ashamed to wear a heart so white".
After Banquo's murder, Macbeth comments that he was "in blood stepped in so far, that, should [he]
wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er".
And then the ever-strong Lady Macbeth is overcome by the memories of Duncan's blood. She walks in
her sleep and is forever looking for water to wash her hands.
Even then the smell of blood remains strong on them.
How many other examples can you find where blood is mentioned in the play? Note them. Count them.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
"Why, it stood by her: she has light by her
continually; 'tis her command."
- What does Lady Macbeth's inability to sleep without a light tell us about her state of
mind? (2)
[Need help?]
She is clearly afraid of the dark. Having called upon the powers of evil to fill her top full of direst cruelty,
she is now terrified of those very powers.
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"It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus
washing her hands: I have known her continue in
this a quarter of an hour."
- Why does Lady Macbeth appear to be washing her hands continually? (4)
[Need help?]
Reflect back to the night of Duncan's murder.
Lady Macbeth carried the daggers back to the bedchamber and smeared the chamberlains with the king's
blood, then returned to announce proudly to Macbeth that her hands were of his colour -- but she was
ashamed to have a heart so white.
Some months down the line -- or is it years? -- everything has changed. In her sleepwalking state,
she struggles to wash the imaginary blood off her hands.
And it is very clear that she fears to have a heart so black!
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"The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?"
- Indeed, where is the Thane of Fife's wife? (2)
[Need help?]
Quite dead! Murdered under instructions from Macbeth -- along with her children, servants and pets.
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In her sleepy chatter, Lady Macbeth confesses to knowledge of three murders.
[Need help?]
Duncan, Banquo and Lady Macduff.
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The doctor speaks about "a great perturbation in nature".
- To what is he referring? (4)
[Need help?]
The ancients always saw a balance in nature.
Nature was essentially a holy place, a creation of the good God. It is man's function to fit into this harmony
but when man turns to evil, his action causes a rift in nature.
This is especially so in the case of murder -- and particularly the murder of a king.
The doctor is therefore referring to the rift in nature caused by the murder of Duncan -- and of the
subsequent tensions throughout Scotland brought about as a result.
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In the previous scene we witnessed the healing powers of the king of England. This scene dramatically
introduces us to Lady Macbeth's mental illness.
- Comment on this contrast. (4)
[Need help?]
Holiness brings about healing whereas evil results in illness.
While the king of England goes about laying his hands on the sick and producing instant cures, in
Scotland the opposite is happening.
Not only does Macbeth not have such power but his own wife is suffering from intense mental sickness
which not even the physicians can cure.
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Why does the gentlewoman refuse to tell the doctor what she has seen and heard, but insists that he see
it for himself? (4)
[Need help?]
Think of Macbeth's network of spies. Macbeth boasted that there was not a household in which he did
not have his spies.
Was it worth the gentlewoman's while to make unsubstantiated statements to the physician about the
mental state of the king's wife? I doubt it!
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