“Out damned spot! Out I say”

• Repetition of “out” shows her desperation to remove the imaginary blood.
• The blood stains are a metaphor for the physiological guilt that can never be washed away.
• The short sentence and exclamation mark highlight her emotion, suggesting a sense of urgency.
• This “spot” is emblematic of the scar the murder has created on her mind.
• However, this may be interpreted in another sense by Shakespeare’s contemporaries. Madness was often perceived a sign of being possessed by demons.

  It was believed that demons and witches had a “spot” on their body which identified them as evil.

  Reinforced by “damned” which has connotations of hell.