Hello and welcome to your lesson today where we'll be exploring blood as a symbol of guilt in "Macbeth." I'm Ms. Sutherland and I'll be teaching you today.

Our learning outcome for today's lesson is to explore and analyse the motif of blood in "Macbeth." We have three key words for today's lesson.

They are motif, impervious, and consumed.

A motif is a recurring idea, image, or symbol in a text or piece of art.

In "Macbeth," there is the motif of light.

There is also the motif of blood.

Impervious.

Impervious means unable to be affected.

So we could talk of a material being impervious to water, meaning water cannot get through to it or affect it.

But we could also talk about humans as being impervious to emotions.

If someone doesn't seem to ever be affected by jealousy, we could say they are impervious to jealousy.

And lastly, consumed.

If you are consumed with something, it affects you very strongly.

If you could be consumed by guilt, you could be consumed by jealousy, with sadness, with excitement.

I'll give you a moment to pause the video and reflect upon those three key words now.

Off you go.

Excellent.

Let's take a look at our learning cycles now.

We have three learning cycles today.

In our first learning cycle, we'll be tracking the motif of blood in "Macbeth." We'll be looking at all the instances in which blood's imagery is used and thinking about the links between those moments.

In the second learning cycle, we'll be discussing nuances in the Macbeth's guilt and how the motif of blood helps us to see their relationship with guilt differently.

And in the third learning cycle, we'll be planning an essay on blood as a symbol of guilt.

So we've got a really interesting lesson today to really unpick blood as a symbol of guilt in "Macbeth." So let's start off with tracking the motif of blood in "Macbeth." Discuss now what connotations do you associate with blood? Pause the video and discuss.

So you may have associated blood with brutality, with danger, with injury, with violence, with war.

Maybe you even said guilt.

Blood is a recurring image or motif in "Macbeth." When blood is referenced, it is often linked to the character's guilt.

In to understand how blood is associated with guilt, we can track when characters talk of blood and how they talk about it.

Here are examples throughout the play when Lady Macbeth references blood.

In act one, scene five, she says, "Make thick my blood and stop, stop up the access and passage to remorse." In act two, scene two, Lady Macbeth says, "A little water clears us of this deed." Meaning that a little water gets the blood off their hands.

In act five, scene one, Lady Macbeth exclaims, "Out damned spots." And we know she's talking about a spot of blood that she is seeing on her hands.

And in act five, scene one, she says, "What will these hands never be clean?" So she thinks there is no way to get the blood that she's seeing off of her hands.

I want you to discuss now how does each reference to blood link with the theme of guilt? Pause the video and discuss.

So we can see that in act one, scene five, Lady Macbeth is asking for her blood to thicken in order for her remorse and guilt to be blocked.

She doesn't want to have feelings of guilt or remorse because then it would stop her from committing regicide.

In act two, scene two, she says to her husband who's obviously feeling guilty that there's no need to feel guilty because water will easily wash the guilt or the blood off of his hands.

However, by act five, scene one, Lady Macbeth is hallucinating blood on her hands and she feels like the blood will never come off.

She feels like the blood has stained her.

So her relationship with guilt in act five, scene one is that it has consumed her and she feels very much tainted by this strong emotion of guilt.

Let's now track Lady Macbeth's associations with blood alongside the theme of guilt to explore how much guilt she feels throughout the play.

So in act one, scene five, Lady Macbeth says, "Make thick my blood," in order to stop her feeling from feeling guilt.

So we could say that she acknowledges what she is plotting is wrong, so we could plot her guilt somewhere in the middle of that diagram.

She does feel some guilt for plotting Duncan's murder.

But she's asking for her blood to thicken in order for her to stop feeling that guilt.

However, by act two, scene two, Lady Macbeth seemingly is impervious to guilt.

She says "A little water clears us of this deed," and tells Macbeth to stop feeling so guilty.

She says there's no need to feel so guilty.

Indeed, she doesn't appear guilty whatsoever.

However, as we've seen for by act five, scene one, Lady Macbeth is consumed by guilt and she feels that she will never be free from the shackles of this guilt.

Much like she'll never wash the blood clean from her hands.

Let's check your understanding of what we've talked about so far then.

True or false? Lady Macbeth appears to feel less guilty as the play progresses.

Pause the video and answer that question.

Is that true or false? Well done if you said false.

It is false that Lady Macbeth feels less guilty as the play progresses.

Now let's consider why that is.

Pause the video and consider why is that answer false.

When tracking the motif of blood throughout the play, Lady Macbeth appears to feel impervious to guilt in act two, but she's consumed with guilt by act five.

So Lady Macbeth appears to feel more guilty as the play progresses.

Now can you find instances of where Macbeth references blood in each of the scenes below? Pause the video and discuss where does Macbeth reference blood in each of these scenes? Off you go.

Let's go through what you may have said.

So in act two, scene one, Macbeth says, "On my blade and dungeon gouts of blood." And, "It is the bloody business that informs thus to mine eyes." Of course he's talking about the, of course he's talking about the dagger that he hallucinates in this scene In act two, scene two, Macbeth says, "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, my hands will rather than multitudinous seas incarnadine making the green one red." So this scene occurs directly after the regicide and Macbeth feels stained with blood and guilt.

Act three, scene two, "With thy bloody hand cancel and tear to pieces that bond that keeps me pale." That quote is said just before Banquo's murder.

And in act three, scene four, Macbeth sees Banquo's ghost and he tells it "Never shake thy gory locks at me." He also says, shortly after ordering for Banquo to be killed, "I'm in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go over." So Macbeth references blood quite a lot throughout this play.

Discuss now, how do you think Macbeth's references to blood relates to his guilt throughout the play? How would you plot his guilt across the play on this diagram? Pause the video and discuss that now.

Let's go through what you may have said.

In act two, scene one, "It is the bloody business that informs thus to mine eyes." When Macbeth sees the dagger right before committing regicide, we could say his guilt is quite high because the dagger is often seen as a manifestation of Macbeth's guilt and it's a sign from his conscience not to follow through with this murder.

In fact, it almost dissuades him from committing regicide.

So we could say he's quite guilty from act two, scene one.

However, Macbeth's guilt intensifies after committing regicide when he says, "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood from my hand?" He feels like he will be forever tainted by the guilt he experiences after murdering the king.

However, by act three, scene two, Macbeth is asking for night's bloody hand to cancel and destroy his bond with Banquo.

The blood imagery there suggests that Macbeth doesn't feel guilt anymore.

He doesn't really feel guilt about plotting to murder his friend.

However, by act three, scene four, when Macbeth sees Banquo's ghost, it is clear that Macbeth is again terrified and fearful, which is suggestive of his guilt, when he says, "Never shake thy gory looks at me" to Banquo's ghost.

Indeed we could see Macbeth as being terrified of divine retribution, being terrified of taking responsibility for his actions in act three, scene four.

And the motif of blood further helps us to understand Banquo's ghost as a symbol of Macbeth's guilt.

I now want you to discuss the following questions to explore the significance of Macbeth's relationship with guilt as the play progresses.

Your four questions are.

Why do you think the description of the dagger is paired with the motif of blood in act two, scene one? Why do you think Macbeth's guilt peaks in act two, scene two? Despite being tormented by guilt in act two, scene two, Macbeth's relationship with blood has changed drastically by act three, scene two as he asks night's bloody hand to cancel his band with Banquo.

Why do you think this is? And lastly, Macbeth again is haunted by Banquo's bloody ghost and feelings of guilt in act three, scene four.

He then decides to kill Macduff's family.

Does Macbeth's guilt serve the function in ought to? Pause the video and discuss those four questions now.

Off you go.

Great job there.

Let's go through what you may have said.

Number one, why do you think the description of the dagger is paired with the motif of blood in act two, scene one? The fact that the dagger is associated with the motif of blood strongly suggests the hallucination is a manifestation of Macbeth's guilt.

Rather than a hallucination designed to encourage brutality or violence, it seems it is a vision designed to dissuade him from committing the sacrilegious murder.

Number two, why do you think Macbeth's guilt peaks in act two, scene two? Act two, scene two marks the moments just after the regicide.

Since Macbeth has just committed what Jacobean's believed was the worst sin possible, it makes sense that he feels stained by blood, reflecting the weight of his guilt for this act of brutality.

Number three, despite being tormented by guilt in act two, scene two, Macbeth's relationship with blood has changed drastically by act three, scene two.

Why do you think this is? It's possible that Macbeth's guilt has been so haunting and uncomfortable, leading him to feel so weak that he feels the need to assert strength through more bloodshed.

And number four, Macbeth again is haunted by Banquo's ghost and feelings of guilt in act three, scene four, but then decides to kill Macduff's family.

Does Macbeth's guilt serve the function it ought to? Macbeth's guilt seems to spur him onto commit more violence despite its usual purpose being to prevent further sin.

Perhaps Macbeth feels so much guilt that he doesn't perceive any chance at redemption.

And that's shown through the quote "I am stepped in blood so far, returning were as tedious as go over." Essentially I feel so guilty and that there's no point in me stopping my crimes and my acts of brutality because I will not be forgiven, so I may as well continue with bloodshed.

Well done on answering those four questions.

Well done for tracking the motif of blood in "Macbeth." Let's move on now to discuss nuances in the Macbeth's guilt.

So we'll be looking at how Lady Macbeth and Macbeth's guilt is shown to be different, and how Shakespeare shows that through the motif of blood.

So we've tracked Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's association with blood throughout the play and how this corresponds with their guilt.

Discuss now considering the graphs from earlier in the lesson, how is Lady Macbeth and Macbeth's relationship with guilt similar or different? Pause the video and discuss.

Both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth's reference to blood seems to be associated with an increase in guilt as the play progresses.

However they seem to react to this guilt differently.

So let's compare these two references to blood.

Macbeth says in act three, scene four, "I am in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go over." And in that in act five, scene one, Lady Macbeth says, "What will these hands never be clean?" I want you to discuss how do these quotations firstly reflect the speakers as guilty, and secondly show that Lady Macbeth and Macbeth react very differently to their guilt.

Pause the video and discuss.

Off you go.

So we see that both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth feel tainted by blood and therefore guilt.

Macbeth says he's in blood, he's consumed with blood.

And Lady Macbeth says that she's stained with blood.

However, Macbeth says that he feels so guilty he's in so much blood that there's no point in stopping his violence and his brutality.

He says it's pointless to stop now because I won't be redeemed.

So he continues to commit acts of brutality despite his immense guilt.

Whereas Lady Macbeth feels debilitated by her guilt, she feels completely helpless because of her guilt.

So they do act differently.

Macbeth acts upon his guilt by taking control and Lady Macbeth relinquish control if we consider that she may have committed suicide.

True or false now.

Macbeth's guilt forces him to stop committing brutal crimes.

Pause the video and answer that question.

That is false.

Macbeth's guilt does not stop him from committing brutal crimes.

Pause the video and consider why that's false.

How do you know? Pause the video.

We know that's false because the sheer amounts of guilt Macbeth feels compels him to commit more crimes.

And we can see that through the quotes, "I'm in blood stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go over." Now I want you to discuss the following questions to explore nuances in Lady Macbeth and Macbeth's guilt.

You are going to explore how their guilt manifests differently.

Number one, what is the difference between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's reference to blood in act one? Number two, how do Lady Macbeth and Macbeth respond to their feelings of guilt in act one? In act two, how do Lady Macbeth and Macbeth talk about blood differently? And by the end of the play, how do both characters perceive blood and thus guilt? Pause the video and answer those four questions to explore the differences in Lady Macbeth and Macbeth's guilt as shown through the motif of blood.

Off you go.

Excellent effort there.

Now I want you to use the grid to formalise your ideas for question two to four.

I want you to draw comparisons between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth using sentence starters such as although, whereas, and despite.

For example, in act one, Lady Macbeth seeks to thicken her own blood whereas Macbeth hallucinates a bloody dagger.

I then want you to develop your ideas using phrases such as more specifically, more precisely, in particular, indeed.

For example, more specifically, Lady Macbeth blocks her guilt and rejects her conscience whereas Macbeth is unable to control his guilt.

And lastly, I want you to draw conclusions to your arguments.

You could use therefore, ultimately, as a result, or consequently.

For example, ultimately, both of the Macbeths' show that their consciences are intact early on in the play but they do not let guilt dissuade them from regicide.

So there's an example of how you can turn your informal discussions into some more formal discussions about the differences in Lady Macbeth and Macbeth's guilt.

So pause the video and use the grid to formalise your ideas for questions two to four.

Off you go.

Great effort there.

I'm sure you had some really interesting discussions.

Let's move on now to our final learning cycle where we'll be planning an essay on blood as a symbol of guilt.

We are going to plan a response to the question, how is the motif of blood used throughout "Macbeth" to reflect different feelings of guilt? Discuss now how could you approach the planning for this essay question.

Pause the video and discuss.

A useful way to plan a complete essay is by using a multiple paragraph outline.

Here is what a multiple paragraph outline looks like.

You start with your thesis.

Your thesis outlines your overarching argument and it's usually found in your introduction.

You then have topic sentences for each of your main body paragraphs.

The topic sentences outline the arguments of each of your paragraphs.

In each of your paragraphs, you'll then want to have supporting detail.

Supporting detail includes key language, form, structure, or contextual detail.

In other words, the writer's methods.

Each paragraph will then have a concluding sentence which summarises your argument of each paragraph.

And lastly, your essay will have a conclusion when you give a summary of the author's message.

So using a multiple paragraph outline like the one on the screen here is a great way to plan an essay.

Now I'm going to give you a thesis statement that you can use for this essay.

Here it is.

Blood is a motif in "Macbeth" that is a powerful reminder of the character's guilt or lack of it.

Regardless of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth's initial relationship with blood, it ends up consuming both of them by the end of the play, demonstrating an inability to evade guilt.

Moreover, their relationship to blood towards the end of the play comes to reflect their futile attempts to regain control in response to their overwhelming guilt.

Discuss now what smaller individual ideas can you think of that would support this overarching thesis statement? Pause the video and discuss.

You've come up with some great ideas that will really help you to plan this essay.

Great job.

Now, which part of the multiple paragraph outline outlines the argument of each paragraph? Pause the video and answer that question to check your understanding of the multiple paragraph outline.

Off you go.

Well done if you said the topic sentence outlines the argument of each paragraph.

So you will need a topic sentence at the beginning of each of your paragraphs in your essay.

Now I want you to complete this multiple paragraph outline to plan a response to the question, how is the motif of blood used throughout "Macbeth" to reflect differing feelings of guilt? And remember, I've written the thesis statement for you, so you need to come up with three topic sentences and supporting details for each of those topic sentences.

Pause the video and get planning.

Off you go.

Excellent effort there.

Here's what you may have written.

Topic sentence number one could read something like this.

Initially, blood is used to characterise both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as having guilt and intact consciences.

Your supporting detail could include the quotes, "Make thick my blood." Lady Macbeth feels the need to suppress feelings of guilt to flow through with murder.

And, "It is the bloody business which informs thus to mine eyes." Guilt appears as a warning not to follow through with crime for Macbeth.

The next topic sentence.

As the play progresses, Macbeth's reference to blood reflects he is tormented by guilt, however, Lady Macbeth suppresses her conscience, appearing impervious to guilt.

Supporting detail could include.

"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood from my hand?" Macbeth is haunted by guilt and acknowledges he has stained his conscience.

However, Lady Macbeth says, "A little water clears us of this deed." She thinks blood can be washed away easily.

She thinks their guilt will wash away easily.

She appears impervious to guilt, resistant to guilt, the complete opposite of Macbeth in this scene.

And finally, the third topic sentence.

Towards the end of the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are consumed by blood, guilt, and stained consciences but whereas this drives Lady Macbeth to suicide, it drives Macbeth to tyranny.

Guilt in both cases though, seems to drive helplessness, paranoia, and a desperate attempt to reassert control.

Supporting detail for this topic sentence.

"Out damned spot." "Will these hands never be clean?" Lady Macbeth hallucinates blood on her hands, she's tormented by guilt, and this eventually leads to suicide.

Macbeth says, "I am in blood stepped in so far." So he acknowledges that he is too consumed by guilt.

But he says, "Should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go over." So whilst he acknowledge it, so whilst like Lady Macbeth he acknowledges he's consumed by guilt, this compels him to kill and evoke more bloodshed in an attempt to regain control.

Well done on planning that essay on blood as a symbol of guilt.

I hope you've found it a really interesting motif to consider throughout this play.

Here's what we've learned in today's lesson.

Blood is a motif closely associated with guilt in "Macbeth." Initially, both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth reference to blood reflects their guilt and intact conscience.

As the play progresses, Macbeth is haunted by blood and guilt.

Lady Macbeth doesn't see blood as staining and thus rejects her guilt.

But by the end of the play, both Macbeth and his wife are consumed by blood and guilt, both appearing helpless.

Thank you for joining me in today's lesson where we've explored blood as a symbol of guilt in "Macbeth." I hope to see you in another lesson very soon.