symbols and motifs

Hallucinations as a motif

Visions and hallucinations reserve as supernatural reminders of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's joint culpability (guilt) for their crimes.

DAGGER When he is about to kill Duncan, Macbeth sees a dagger floating in the air. Covered with blood and pointed toward the king's chamber, the dagger represents the bloody course on which Macbeth is about to embark.

BANQUOS GHOST Later, he sees Banquo's ghost sitting in a chair at a feast, pricking his conscience by mutely reminding him that he murdered his former friend

LADY MACBETH'S BLOOD-STAINED HANDS
The seemingly hardheaded Lady Macbeth also eventually gives way to visions, as she sleepwalks and believes that her hands are stained with blood that cannot be washed away by any amount of water.

violence as a motif

Throughout the play the characters provide the audience with gory descriptions of the carnage and bloodshed.
OPENING SCENE- the captain describes Macbeth and Banquo wading in blood on the battlefield

CONSTANT REFERENCES TO the bloodstained hands of Macbeth and his wife.

Blood as a symbol

METAPHORICAL level- represents guilt and evil Once Macbeth and Lady Macbeth embark upon their murderous journey, blood comes to symbolize their guilt, and they begin to feel that their crimes have stained them in a way that cannot be washed clean.

LITERAL level: Blood is everywhere in Macbeth, beginning with the opening battle between the Scots and the Norwegian invaders, which is described in harrowing terms by the wounded captain in Act 1, scene 2.

serpent

Shows that Lady Macbeth wants her husband to hide his deceit. The symbol also has connotations of temptation and lost innocence through the serpent's link to the biblial story of Adam and Eve