Macbeth's Guilt Analysis

   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.

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 the Shakespearean play written by William Shakespeare, Macbeth, seems to be corrupted by guilt and this appears to destroy his inner peace. Macbeth’s character change seems to develop during the middle and after he murders King Duncan. Macbeth develops from a very noble and honest man into a very evil man. This is because he is destroyed by guilt through killing King Duncan. His mind and inner peace are completely destroyed by this traitorous act that he now is a completely different character from what he was at the start of the play. Macbeth is completely damaged by his mind and corruption of his thinking.

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.

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

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.

iv. 136-140). From this quote it can be inferred that Macbeth is concerned for himself because of all of the crimes that he is committed and is scared that people are coming after him. He has already stepped in the river of blood but cannot go back because he is already too deep and plans to continue farther. Holding the guilt of killing the most beloved King and the thought that people are coming after him, drives Macbeth to making poor decisions to protect himself and the use of blood helps the reader to see how insane Macbeth really is. Macbeth is not the only character in the play who goes insane because of guilt, his wife Lady Macbeth too goes insane with holding the guilt of ruining lives of innocent people. At one point she feels so guilty she begins to have hallucinations and even starts sleepwalking and talking. During the night when she was sleepwalking she tried to remove the blood that has stained her hands and becomes extremely paranoid that the blood is not coming off. It can be inferred that even though Lady Macbeth only helped to plan the murders she never actually kill someone, but she still carries the guilt as if she did. Shakespeare is trying to showcase with the motif of blood that no matter what type of crime is committed there is still guilt and

In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth’s ultimate downfall is due to the guilt he feels over everything he has done. The motif of supernatural forces, specifically the hallucinations and lack of sleep that Macbeth experiences, project the force of the guilt that eventually causes Macbeth’s destruction. Shakespeare uses the motif of supernatural forces to express how the force of the guilt Macbeth feels eventually leads to his final demolition in the play Macbeth.

Throughout the murders that are constantly taking place amongst the story line in Macbeth, Shakespeare used a part of the body, hands, to show the growing guilt Macbeth and his wife feel progressing through the play. Before the murder of Duncan, Macbeth’s hands are led to a dagger that is a figment of his own imagination. While standing in the castle before the murder happens, he sees a dagger and questions, “Is this dagger which I see before me/ The handle toward my hand?”(2.1.43-44). When Shakespeare says “the hand toward my hand”, he implies that the dagger is leading the hand toward it, when really it’s just Macbeth’s will to kill, driving his hand toward the dagger. In this passage, the hand is the thing being led to the dagger, while

In Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, the motif of blood is applied to the play to represent the effects of guilt. The ambition of Lady Macbeth has the potential to lead her to true success, but the presence of guilt instead leads her to insanity and ultimately, her downfall. "Here's the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. " In the presence of blood, Macbeth endures great remorse for his partaking in Duncan's murder.

(5.1.39-44). Blood is used in this context as a metaphor for her guilt that the murder of King Duncan Is because of her as she persuaded Macbeth to kill the King. She realizes that there is no way out of the guilt she is feeling and that she would forever be a murder: “all the/ perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand” (5.1.54-55). Lady Macbeth died later on in the play, specifically in Act 5 Scene 5 from an unspecified illness. However it is safe to assume that her depression and guilt from killing King Duncan brought upon her

Your honour, gentlemen of the jury. Seated in front of you today is a man accused of the regicide of the late King of Scotland, our beloved Duncan. The prosecution will portray Macbeth as an ambitious man, one who plotted the murder of his own cousin, so that he could lay claim to the title of the crown. But the issue in this case is not whether Macbeth murdered the deceased, this fact is not disputed. What you, gentlemen of the jury, must determine is whether Macbeth was of clear mind when he committed this act. Evidence shows that this is not so, in fact, Macbeth was the victim in this crime. It was he who was possessed- brainwashed- by the evil witches. It was he who was taken advantage of by his ambitious wife, Lady Macbeth, to further her lust for power. It was he, one of

Macbeth allows his ambition to overrule his life and his once noble and caring characteristics demolished. He becomes unconscionable and murderous, having any person who might stand in the way of his crown killed. Macbeth succeeds in becoming the most hated “tyrant” in Scotland. Lady Macbeth on the other hand is filled with regret and becomes so significantly worried over the imaginative “damned spot” of blood on her hands, that she drives herself to death. Lady Macbeth’s flaw of ambition eventually took over her life and she finds her only escape to be death.