Macbeth: The Effects of Guilt Essay

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.

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.

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

   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.

The result of Macbeth‘s guilt is that he fears he will go to Hell. “I had most need of blessing, and ‘Amen’ stuck in my throat,” page 28. For someone who believes in heaven, the ultimate proof of guilt would be to go to Hell after death. Macbeth is doubting his place in heaven and thinking that his crime has given him a great need of blessing, or he will be branded a sinner when death comes if he cannot say ‘Amen’ after the murder. On the other hand, Lady Macbeth says to “Consider it not so deeply,” page 28. She is either telling Macbeth to not to worry about it, or telling herself as well. Most likely, she feels guiltless, because on page 29, the only shame she says she would feel is if she were a white-hearted coward like Macbeth. Macbeth's guilt is so intense that it prevents him from framing the guards (p. 29) or being sure of going to Heaven, while Lady Macbeth's guiltlessness makes her mock her husband for cowardice.

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

In William Shakespeare’s famous play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is was a corrupt woman who wanted nothing more than to gain power for her and her husband, Macbeth. However, in Act Four, these actions were quickly replaced by a series of guilt with Lady Macbeth constantly asking for absolution. While Macbeth becomes a callous figure to society, Lady Macbeth shames herself for their murderous acts.

At first, guilt starts to overcome Macbeth when he kills Duncan. When Macbeth approaches his wife after killing Duncan it is apparent to the readers that he starts to feel ashamed of what he has just done. Macbeth is shown to be as someone who is fearless and nothing will get in the way of what he wants to achieve, but as soon as the ambition of him becoming king starts taking over and he acts upon his intentions, the guilt as well slowly starts taking over. As it states in the play; “I’ll go no more: I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on’t again I dare not” (Act II Scene II Line 65-67). Macbeth says this to his wife after she tells him to put the daggers back at the place of the murder, but he refuses saying that he cannot go back and it scares him to look at what he has done. We get to see more of Macbeth’s character through this, how he is unable to witness what he has just done because he cannot believe how cruel he has become in to getting what he wants. In the beginning of the book when he slays the traitor he does not feel guilty about it but feels proud because he knows he did

Throughout the story macbeth does lots of things that can cause him to have guilt. For example macbeth says “with these hangman's hands, listening their fear. I could not say “amen” When they did say “god bless us.”(2.2.38-40) Mabeth fails because he felt guilty after he had killed King Duncan. As he was walked by people they called out god bless us and the polite thing he could have done would have to say amen back but because he didn't that caused them to be suspicious and it also caused a tremendous amount of guilt to be added to macbeth. Guilt is a bad emotion to feel. The truth, however, is that guilt is the greatest destroyer of emotional energy. It leaves you feeling immobilized in the present by something that has already occurred.

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.

One of the most dynamic characters in Macbeth is Lady Macbeth whose ambition leads her to take lives to gain power, but ironically, the power she feeds is the power of guilt her mind uses to drive herself crazy. Towards the beginning of Shakespeare’s play, Lady Macbeth has an ambitious fire in her heart that burns for a new royal status. Her longing desire to claim her life as queen is only one death away. The responsibility to take the current king’s life is in her husband’s hands. Her overwhelming ambition results in a prayer to the gods to sacrifice her femininity in order to ensure the king’s death. She encourages her coward of a husband to take the king’s life and to simply wash off the blood and guilt. Guilt and regret from the king’s

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.

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

Lady Macbeth is conscience only of her desire to gain power, and pays little attention to the consequences that are sure to follower her selfish actions. In order to control Macbeth’s guilt she says,” These deeds must not be thought. After these ways; so it will make us mad (Thomson).” She starts to put ideas in Macbeth’s head, and attempts to make him heartless about murder.

At a point in someone’s lifetime guilt will push them over the edge and drive them crazy. It could just be a mild deed like lying to you parents about sneaking out at night or an extreme deed like robbing or even murdering a person. In the play Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, the main character Macbeth is driven to insanity because of all the guilt that he holds. Macbeth is not the only character in the play who goes insane because of guilt that they carry. In fact there are so many characters who have guilt that it is a main theme in the play. Shakespeare uses many different strategies to portray this theme like imagery, symbolism, motifs, and irony. Although some may argue that symbolism is the most prominent strategy