ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -He says, “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.” Macbeth means that there is not enough water in the sea to cleanse his hands, but instead the blood on them will stain the ocean red.

Detailed explanation-2: -She means that her hands are red, too (because she has been busy smearing the King’s blood on the grooms), but that she would be ashamed to have a heart as white as Macbeth’s. A white heart is white because it has no blood, and the person with a white heart is a coward.

Detailed explanation-3: -“My hands are of your color, but I shame to wear a heart so white” (2.2. 63-64). Lady Macbeth ridicules Macbeth for behaving so weak and naïve. He is supposed to be a man who is brave and fearless, but instead he cowers like an infant.

Detailed explanation-4: -After he kills Duncan, Macbeth comes to Lady Macbeth with his hands covered in blood. Horrified by his act, Macbeth laments that not even all of “Neptune’s ocean” would be enough to clean his hands. The blood on Macbeth’s hands symbolizes the guilt he feels for murdering Duncan. Out, damned spot!

Detailed explanation-5: -Blood, specifically Duncan’s blood, serves as the symbol of that guilt, and Macbeth’s sense that “all great Neptune’s ocean” cannot cleanse him-that there is enough blood on his hands to turn the entire sea red-will stay with him until his death.