Macbethic
MACBETH AS A GOTHIC TEXT
Supernatural Powers & Distortion of Reality
Inversion of the natural order as evident in the witches’ language – fair is foul
and foul is fair. Shakespeare has the witches speak in language of contradiction.
Such speech adds to the play’s sense of moral confusion by implying that
nothing is quite what it seems. Macbeth’s first line in the play is “So foul and fair
a day I have not seen” which echoes the witches’ words and establishes a
connection between them and Macbeth.
Blood & Violence
Blood is a prominent symbol in Gothic works often intimating the paradox of the
human condition; blood can represent both life and death, or both guilt (murder)
and innocence (redemptive blood). Blood is everywhere in Macbeth and once
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth embark upon their murderous journey, blood comes
to symbolize their guilt, and they begin to feel that their crimes have stained
them in a way that cannot be washed clean. “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash
this blood / Clean from my hand?” Lady Macbeth eventually comes to share his
horrified sense of being stained: “Out, damned spot; out, I say . . . who would
have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?”
The murder is kept off stage – apart from political sensitivity (it was not a good
idea to suggest to the common folk that a king could be killed), the murder can be
made to seem more terrible by the power of suggestion.
Lady Macbeth, her nerves shattered by guilt, gives way to sleepwalking and a
delusional belief that her hands are stained with blood. “Out, damned spot,” Her
belief that nothing can wash away the blood is an ironic reversal of her earlier
claim to Macbeth that a “little water clears us of this deed”.
MACBETH AS A GOTHIC TEXT
Supernatural Powers & Distortion of Reality
Inversion of the natural order as evident in the witches’ language – fair is foul
and foul is fair. Shakespeare has the witches speak in language of contradiction.
Such speech adds to the play’s sense of moral confusion by implying that
nothing is quite what it seems. Macbeth’s first line in the play is “So foul and fair
a day I have not seen” which echoes the witches’ words and establishes a
connection between them and Macbeth.
Blood & Violence
Blood is a prominent symbol in Gothic works often intimating the paradox of the
human condition; blood can represent both life and death, or both guilt (murder)
and innocence (redemptive blood). Blood is everywhere in Macbeth and once
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth embark upon their murderous journey, blood comes
to symbolize their guilt, and they begin to feel that their crimes have stained
them in a way that cannot be washed clean. “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash
this blood / Clean from my hand?” Lady Macbeth eventually comes to share his
horrified sense of being stained: “Out, damned spot; out, I say . . . who would
have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?”
The murder is kept off stage – apart from political sensitivity (it was not a good
idea to suggest to the common folk that a king could be killed), the murder can be
made to seem more terrible by the power of suggestion.
Lady Macbeth, her nerves shattered by guilt, gives way to sleepwalking and a
delusional belief that her hands are stained with blood. “Out, damned spot,” Her
belief that nothing can wash away the blood is an ironic reversal of her earlier
claim to Macbeth that a “little water clears us of this deed”.
