Guilt in Macbeth Essay

   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.

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.

Lady Macbeth in William Shakespeare’s play ‘Macbeth’ is a character who suffers greatly in because of her human weakness, which is her vaulting ambition. This ambition is not for her, but for her husband. This woman, who seemed so in control at the beginning of the okay, only cared for her husband and his success, later becomes so consumed with guilt and remorse that it results in her tragic death. Through the discussion of characterisation and lkey scenes, I shall reveal that Lady Macbeth’s human flaw is  not only a major contributor to the ruthlessness of her husband but creates a huge influence in how the play unfolds.

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.

A deadly combination of ambition and guilt poisons both Macbeth and his wife and leads to their deaths in the end. Ruined by her desire for power, Lady Macbeth’s descent into madness is more vivid and guilt seems to affect her more than her husband, even though he is responsible for more crimes. Her request to the spirits to “unsex [her] here,/ And fill [her], from the crown to the toe, top-full/ Of direst cruelty!” is contrasted as the more guilty she feels, the more weak and sensitive she become, a polar opposite of her usual masculine and bold self (1.5.44-46). As a result, she is unable to cope with the guilt and meets her ultimate demise by taking her life. This has an immediate effect on Macbeth: the almost always apparent tension of ambition and guilt disappears. He does not seem interested in living and is ready to face death in a manner more relatable to his former self rather than the murderer he has become. Moreover, Macbeth’s final remark is “Arm, arm, and out!”,

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.

Lady Macbeth’s strength of will persists through the murder of King Duncan as it is she who tries to calm Macbeth after committing the crime by declaring confidently that, “a little water clears us of this deed,” (2.2.67). Afterward, however, Lady Macbeth’s strong and ambitious character begins to deteriorate into madness. Her first sign of weakness occurred when she confessed that she could not have killed the king, revealing a natural woman’s feelings, “had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t” (2.2.13-14). Just as ambition has affected her before more so then Macbeth before the crime, the guilt plagues her now more effectively afterward as she desperately tried to wash away the invisible blood from her sin, “Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfume of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand,” (5.1.48-49). Lady Macbeth’s

Guilt is a very strong and uncomfortable feeling that often results from one’s own actions. This strong emotion is one of the theme ideas in William Shakespeare, “Macbeth”. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth feel guilt, but they react in different ways. Guilt hardens Macbeth, but cause Lady Macbeth to commit suicide. As Macbeth shrives to success guilt overcome’s Macbeth where he can no longer think straight. Initially Macbeth planned was to kill Duncan but it wasn’t enough he also had to kill Banquo and Macduff’s family. On the other hand Lady Macbeth had to call upon the weird sister to unsexed her so she had no true feeling towards anything as if she was a man. However, the true guilt of the murder

Here shows how Lady Macbeth was not hit by guilt like Macbeth was. Macduff is the one to announce the murder of the king, and when Lady Macbeth comes out as the trumpets screamed because of such an acquaintance he tells her, “Oh, gentle lady, ‘tis not for you to hear what I can speak. The repetition in a woman’s ear would murder as it fell.” Lady Macbeth acts as if she could not believe and fakes a faint with the most common and normal behavior as if nothing had happen, as if she was not the brain of such a cruel crime. Her cold blood and fakeness is incomparable on the beginning of the novel. Lady Macbeth does not understand why Macbeth is so guilty and is not enjoying his throne and power that were recently earned. As a “good” wife she tries to calm him down by saying that what he had done was nothing that it was all okay.

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.

Not feeling any remorse, she is able to skillfully let go of guilt and skillfully get rid of evidence. As Macbeth comes back to her after the deed is complete he is very shaken up and extremely paranoid that someone saw him with the bloody daggers. Lady Macbeth tells him, “These deeds must not be thought after these ways; so it will make us mad” (2.2.34). By saying this she believes that you shouldn’t feel guilty about doing evil, you should just get it done and move on because thinking about it will only drive you crazy. Also she thinks when commiting violent acts such as murder make sure to get rid of any evidence that will lead people to believe you are a suspect. Frustrated and upset that her husband came home bathed in blood and the daggers in his hand she states, “Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers.”(2.2.52-53). She is extremely disappointed in Macbeth for being so careless and cannot believe that he did not go through the well thought out plan smoothly. In her eyes he is still a coward and does not know how to behave calmy when feeling guilty.

Lady Macbeth is a complex and intriguing character in Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth. She is a difficult character to embody as her personality seems split between two sides, one that is pure evil, sly and conniving in contrast to her softer, vulnerable, weak and feminine side. In the play we see her in these two main ways. The reader may feel a certain animosity towards Lady Macbeth throughout the first few acts as her personality appears more and more distasteful, in spite of this towards the end she has a serious breakdown over the guilt that torments her, even in her sleep, regarding her hand in Duncan’s untimely death.

However, Lady Macbeth’s conscious shines through as she is not able to kill a poor vulnerable man who looks like her father. She is thrown off guard be her reaction to Duncan’s face. She does not expect to feel any remorse toward the old man but she does. After Macbeth kills Duncan, Lady Macbeth regains her cruel nature and quickly takes the dagger from him to frame the guards, “Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead/ Are but as pictures. ‘Tis the eye of childhood/ That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, / I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal, / For it must seem their guilt.”(68-72). Lady Macbeth shows no remorse or respect for the dead. Lady Macbeth cannot let her remorse control her because she knows that the only way to bring about the prophecy is to frame the guards. Lady Macbeth unsuccessfully attempts to block out the horrendous deeds she commits. The compassion Lady Macbeth shows for Duncan proves that the spirits did not remove her soul or kill her conscious, which will be her Achilles heel and lead to her death.

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.

Lady Macbeth was very much aware of her wrongdoings. She confronted the situation through sleepwalking and admitted her feelings of guilt and remorse. (5. 1. 32-42.) Opposingly, Lady Asaji distraughtly