“ Whence is that knocking?
How isn’t with me when every noise appals me?
What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes.
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.”
How isn’t with me when every noise appals me?
What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes.
Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.”
This soliloquy from Macbeth is a clear display of his immediate feelings of guilt and regret. In his mind he is now questioning what he has done and why he has done it. He is now deeply disturbed, and even a knock on the door makes him jump, as if he is about to be caught red handed. The line “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” Macbeth realizes that not all the water in the world can rid him of the burden of murder. Neptune, the Roman god of the sea, cannot not wash the away the guilt he feels, and the blood from his hands will sooner turn the seas “incarnadine”, or a deep red, before the seas wash away the blood. Macbeth felt loyal to the king yet he has just betrayed him in murdering him, but he cannot fathom why he has done it. Perhaps it was not him? Or was it Lady Macbeth’s mandate? Macbeth working in collusion with Lady Macbeth is certainly motivating him towards it, but she is not the one who followed through on it. Lady Macbeth even claims she would have done it herself had Duncan “ not reminded me of my father”, yet she scolds Macbeth for being so chary in murdering him. You almost feel sorry for Macbeth as he feels so guilty afterwards, in contrast with Lady Macbeth’s imperturbable demeanor. Macbeth’s bloody hands are a symbol of his guilt and remorse.
No comments:
Post a Comment