When Lady Macbeth says, “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand,” she is
echoing a thought expressed by Macbeth in Act II, Scene 2.. What are Macbeth’s exact
words? What do these words mean? How is Lady Macbeth’s statement different from her comment about water made immediately after the murder?
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Macbeth's words on cleaning blood from the hands, "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this lbood / Clean from my hand? / No: this my hand will rather / The multitudinous seas incarnadine, / making the green one red." (2, 2, 63-66) These words mean that the hands are so bloody that they will overcome the water in the sea. Instead of the hands being washed and the blood dispersed out and disappeared, the contrary will happen. The red blood will make the sea red.
Immediately after the murder Lady Macbeth minimized the water that had to be used to wash the blood, "A little water clears us of this deed." (2, 2, 70) By Act V, Lady Macbeth is suffering by nightmares and sleepwalking. This time, she calls her hand little. This makes the expression more dramatic because "little" (5, 1, 43) contrasts with "all the perfumes of Arabia." (5, 1, 42-43)
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