Effects of Guilt in Macbeth

   Shakespeare's "Macbeth" holds many hidden themes within its already exuberant plot.  The first of these surrounds the murder of Duncan and the role that both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth himself played.  However, the true guilt of the murder can fall on either character.  Although Macbeth physically committed the crime, it was Lady Macbeth that pushed him to his limits of rational thought and essentially made fun of him to lower his esteem.  With Macbeth's defenses down, it was an easy task for Lady Macbeth to influence Duncan's murder and make up an excuse as to why she could not do it herself.  The guilt of Duncan's murder can be placed firmly on the head on Lady Macbeth.

Lady Macbeth played a large role as Macbeth’s seductress and brainwasher. Lady Macbeth persuaded her husband to kill the King not so that he would himself be King but so that she could be Queen.Although because of her involvement in this web of lies she felt guilty and drove herself insane worrying about what had happened and what would happen to her and her husband for being so dishonest. She was not responsible for the tragedy, she was only a manipulative factor in the scheme of things. Even though it does take two to tango, Macbeth tangoed on his own.

After he kills Duncan, Macbeth carries all the guilt, and is too shaken by shame to continue, while Lady Macbeth either feels no guilt, or represses it, because she is able to continue the deed and frame Duncan’s guards.

Macbeth, although manipulated by the witches and persuaded by his wife, is ultimately responsible for his own actions. At the beginning of the play, he is portrayed as the noble and courageous hero; by the end, however, the audience sees his brutal and power-hungry character drives him to fulfil his ambition. The three witches manipulate Macbeth through prophecies foretelling his fate. Lady Macbeth is also partly to blame for her taunting and eventual encouragement of her husband, leading him to his immoral choices. In the end, it is Macbeth’s many character flaws that drive him to his poor decisions and fateful end.

Macbeth, a tragedy written by William Shakespeare and edited by Maynard Mack and Robert Boynton, displays the many ways in which guilt manifests itself and the effects it has on its victims. Throughout the play, characters including Lady Macbeth are deeply affected by guilt in ways they had never expected. Macbeth takes its audience on a journey through the process in which guilty gradually eats away at Lady Macbeth and forces her to do what she thinks is best. Though Lady Macbeth may have initially seemed unaffected by the murders she had been involved in, her desires eventually faded and were replaced with an invincible feeling of guilt which eventually took her life.

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the title character Macbeth and his wife are both exceptionally ambitious, often taking rather radical measures to accomplish their goals. While this ruthless drive to power is seemingly prosperous at first, it quickly crumbles to naught as guilt infects their minds with grim consequences to follow. Macbeth transforms from a noble general to a guilt-ridden and despaired murderer, while Lady Macbeth’s usually stoic and masculine persona deteriorates into a pitiful and anxious shell of her former self. The feeling of remorse quickly plagues the two characters and overpowers ambition through manifesting itself through nightmares, ghosts, and paranoia, and ultimately leads to their demise.

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the theme of guilt and conscience is one of many explored throughout the play. Macbeth, is a well respected Scottish noble who in the beginning of the play is a man everyone looks up to; however as the play progresses he makes a number of bad decisions. Eventually, as a result of his actions he suffers guilt and this plays heavily upon his character until his personality is completely destroyed. Shakespeare uses a range of techniques in order to develop this theme such as, characters, imagery.

After hearing the weird sister, his ambition got the best of him .He considered murdering Duncan and the morality of the murder. Guilt plays a large role in how he acts after he commits their crimes. But guilt isn’t so obvious with Macbeth ,before he kill’s Duncan ,Macbeth feels guilt and consider backing out of the murder, but lady Macbeth won’t let him, “But Screw your courage to the sticking place, And we’ll not Fail “,(I, IV,70-71).Once again Macbeth sees that what he is doing wrong ,but he doesn’t let that stop him. As Duncan led him to feel paranoid and a lust for power, he kills the king despite his better judgment. Throughout the scene there are several quotes that show this “Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more: Macbeth shall sleep no more”, (II, II, 51-52). This shows the amount of guilt his feels. He describe by saying “who was that thus cried? Why, worthy thane, you do unbend your noble strength, Go get some water And wash this filthy witness from your hand.” (II, II, 58-61). As Macbeth seeks to free himself of guilt he realize he suffer guilt as he seeks for ambitions

You can control guilt or guilt will drive you into madness. In the novel, Macbeth, guilt has taken over two of the main characters, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, but each one responds to it in a different way. Their similarities and differences are quite obvious and both are driven to their actions by this feeling. It will eventually cause both of them a breakdown, affecting their behaviors and resulting them into going through a psychological incapacity.

The story “The Tragedy Of Macbeth” also called The Scottish Play was written in 1606, by William Shakespeare. The story takes place in Scotland where King Duncan is in charge the country. Macbeth who is the Thames of Glamis, will go on an adventure to take leadership of the country of Scotland, while he also battles with his personal insanity along the way. Macbeth will eventually be King of Scotland and have a miserable reign due to his guilt, inadequacy and tyranny.

As the main motivator to Macbeth’s actions, Lady Macbeth is a character whose ambition and greed lead her and her husband to their inevitable fate of death. Lady Macbeth’s relentlessness, as well as her longing for power, generate an emotion of endless pain and suffering

Everyone deals with guilt at least one time throughout their life, and several authors use guilt to help build up suspense in their story. Guilt in Macbeth not only affects his mental state of mind, but it also destroys him physically, along with a few other characters such as Lady Macbeth. The characters are affected by guilt so much, that it actually leads to their death essentially, just because they were not able to handle the consequences for the events that occurred. Despite being destroyed by guilt, they were still forced to carry on with their lives and they did have to try to hide it, even though Macbeth was not doing so well with that. His hallucinations were giving him up and eventually everyone knew the he had murdered Duncan

Guilt is essential in Macbeth, because it evokes our conscience to feel emotion and regret. Macbeth, is written by William Shakespeare, a story about a power-hungry and ambitious leader who does many vicious acts to gain power. After murdering Duncan and hiring people to kill his friend Banquo, Lady Macduff and her son he feels major guilt. Macbeth is living a miserable life; he can not sleep and is always thinking about what he has done. Guilt is a good emotion to feel; it means one has feelings and emotions even after committing a serious crime. The people Macbeth murders are innocent; he has no reason to kill them. Macbeth does all of this for himself; he is very full of himself and he does not care what has to be done to get what he wants. He always wants everything to go his way, no matter who gets hurt.

In Macbeth and Antigone the authors created guilt for the women to use against the main characters for their advantage. Macbeth exploits Lady Macbeth to balance Macbeth in the play; many say that Lady Macbeth put guilt on

Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s most powerful and emotionally intense plays. Macbeth, once known for his courage and bravery is transformed into a ruthless tyrant. His wife, Lady Macbeth, once known for her strength and great ambition is soon engulfed by guilt and sensitivity greatly weakens her. As the tragic hero Macbeth is overcome by tensions in his criminal act and the reactions by his conscience (Nix).