Macbeth Group

Question:

emenace
emenace
Student
High School - 9th Grade

How dirty does Macbeth indicate his hands are? What does he mean?

In contrast, what does Lady Macbeth say about dirty hands? What does her response seem Ironic when contrasted with Macbeth's?

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Posted by emenace on Sunday August 2, 2009 at 7:40 PM and tagged with act 2, dirty, hands, macbeth.

Answers:

  1. writergal06
    writergal06 Teacher

    eNotes Editor

    Macbeth's initial guilt is revealed in his declaration that his hands were stained with blood that would never come off. He is made weak and faint by the bloodstained hands, and is too preoccupied with Duncan's blood on his hands to even finish the job of framing the guards. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, is completely unfazed, declaring that with her own white hands she will finish the job that Macbeth started. While at the start of the play, Lady Macbeth is the non-repentant one that is proud of the king's blood that stained her hands, by the end of the play she is tormented with guilt. Lady Macbeth wanders around the palace in Act 5 trying to wash the stains of Duncan's blood off her hands. This is the irony of the situation- by the end of the play Macbeth is actively pursuing the shedding of more blood, and Lady Macbeth has become the one with a guilty conscious.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/macbeth/

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    Posted by writergal06 on Sunday August 2, 2009 at 10:11 PM