Washing the hands is another powerful visual trope that has emerged during this pandemic.
One set of associations that are especially potent for the English speaking world are those of Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth, who whilst sleepwalking in her chamber, tries to rub the stains of murder from her hands , crying out, 'what, will these hands ne'er be clean'. The 'Out damned spot' soliloquy now being used directly with images of hand washing, making a very timely point.
However for Lady Macbeth, ‘All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand’. While soap can eliminate the virus, it cannot help mitigate the psychological aftermath of murder, some types of contamination can never be washed away.
Washing is an ancient trope and is often associated with religious ritual, as in, 'Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!' (Psalm 51) This brings me to my second set of associations; hand washing is very like hand wringing and hand wringing is very closely associated with putting your hands together for prayer.
From hand washing
via hand wringing
To praying
As John Wesley pointed out cleanliness is next to godliness,
Prayer is often used to form a connection with invisible forces, to remove sin or to seek divine intercession. Hand washing is used to restore hygiene and to remove the traces of an invisible virus, whilst hand wringing is seen as a symptom of distress or it can be a feigned exhibition of distress. Many people with OCD are washing their hands over and over again, another symptom of distress; others are now praying to God to relieve them from the affects of a pandemic lockdown, there is a deep need to find comfort in times of distress and it emerges in different ways. You could argue that what prayer does is provide hope for those who have no other resources to turn to, a sort of last chance saloon; of course for the believers in religion it is a first, rather than last port of call.
Durer
We have an almost subconscious collective mythic memory of the black death or plague that spread throughout Medieval Europe. It was spread by the bacterium yersinia pestis. Necrosis of the hands and feet being one of the common symptoms, the image below being the hand of someone who recently caught the plague from an infected rat.
Hand of a plague sufferer
It is easy to see why the idea of a dark evil stain, could become associated with disease. However as a visual trope it has more recently become associated with Halloween make-up.
Hands made up for Halloween
There is though a very short step from the mock horror of zombie movies, into the visual reality of pandemic death.
Ritual purification in Bali
In order to get rid of illness there are many bathing rituals. In Balinese culture, flower baths were used as healing rituals, designed to help both body and spirit. These have now being mainly turned into tourist attractions, but at one time they were an essential and integrated part of a whole body system of ritual cleansing. Ritual purification requires a follower of a religion to be free of uncleanliness, especially prior to worship. Ritual purification may also apply to objects and places, it is not just something reserved for people. Although not identical to physical dirtiness, ritual purification is often focused on removing body fluids and stains, all of which are generally considered to be ritually unclean.
Washing facilities outside the Blue Mosque Istanbul
When I was in Istanbul I was fascinated to see the importance placed on pre-prayer washing, something that is central to the preparing of oneself for an encounter with God in prayer. The whole body is made supplicant in Islamic prayer, which reminds us all of the reason for both kneeling and putting hands together in Christian prayer. Body and mind are supposed to be united in belief.
Whether or not you are religious, there is a very important truth underlying these issues and that is that the mind and body are one unified thing and that physical actions are both a product of the mind and mind builders. Lady Macbeth's difficulty in washing her hands clean is clearly a deeply mental issue, not a physical one and our daily hand washing rituals in defence against an invisible virus, will also be building unconscious mental constructions as well as ensuring clean hands.
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