BLOOD IMAGERY IN MACBETH
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Gratuitous use of blood is the staple of most murder scenes. Perhaps this technique was first developed by Shakespeare for his play Macbeth. The blood imagery used in Macbeth, adds to the horror of the play. There are several examples of this throughout the play. The first noteworthy example occurs in the second scene after the murder of Duncan, when Macbeth is trying to wash the blood from his hands. The second example occurs in the third scene when Macbeth refers to the king's gory wounds. The third and final occurrence involving blood imagery takes place in scene four while Ross is talking to Macduff about the murder. As a whole, all of these blatant examples of blood imagery help to augment the gruesome atmosphere of the play.
In the second scene, after the murder of Duncan, Macbeth is trying to wash the blood from his hands, "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?" This adds a lot to atmosphere of the play in that it implies that it would take Neptune's entire ocean to wash the substantial amount of blood from his hands...