ii.26-27). The guests can declare him guilty because they have seen his murderous hands. Lady Macbeth is also aware of the way that bloody hands could betray them. She orders Macbeth to clear himself of all apparent guilt when she says, "Go get some water,/ And wash away this filthy witness from your hand" (II.ii.43-44). Without proof, one can't be given the blame for an action, so again "hands" are representing culpability in that by wiping them clean, Macbeth is also wiping the guilt of Duncan's murder from himself. Lady Macbeth knows that her husband does not deserve all of the condemnation that would befall him if the secret of his homicide ever got out, so she tells Macbeth that she, too, is to blame. She says, "My hands are of your color (II.ii.60)," to give herself some of the guilt as well. That line means that it is as if her hands are covered in Duncan's red blood, as well. Lennox also attaches blame to the appearance of hands. "Those of his chamber, as it seem"d, had done't: / Their hands and faces were all badged with blood" (II.iii.101-102). It is the quick assumption that whoever's hands look as if they have to be guilty, must be guilty. Critical scholar Kevin Muir states, in his essay, "Imagery", that the repeated attempts in the play to remove blood from hands is a way that Shakespeare tries to get across the theme that guilt is incredibly difficult to remove, if not impossible. .
It is almost the opposite of guilt that symbolized by the use of the word "hands" in Act III. Now when hands are spoken of, they are in direct association with tyrannical power and brutality without remorse. Macbeth says that the witches have placed a "fruitless crown" (III.i.60) on his head and given him a "barren scepter" (III.i.61) to hold. They have foreseen that he will bear no sons and Macbeth is bitter. He feels that it is out of his control; it wont be an heir of his that gets to take the king's scepter from him, but it is to be "wrench"d with an unlineal hand" (III.
