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Macbeth Guilt Essay

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William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a tragedy in which the plot evolves in great accordance to the guilt that the individual characters feel. The guilt starts with the planning and execution of the murder of King Duncan. To this event Lady Macbeth and Macbeth react in different ways. They both become guilty in some way or another but the guilt they feel is comprised of different reasons. It is due to their differences in character that they react in the ways they do. While it might not seem like both of them become guilty after this event, when explored their actions show clearly the guilt they feel.

When Macbeth and Lady Macbeth decide to kill Duncan they both have different reactions. Lady Macbeth is making her conscious more manly and …show more content…

Macbeth starts off as a “brave” man who is physically capable of a lot, but is mentally very weak. Whereas Lady Macbeth is limited physically by her sex, but believes that she is mentally stronger than Macbeth. As the play pans out we are able to make our own judgment on each characters strengths and weaknesses. In the “unsex me” scene Lady Macbeth tells us that she wants to be changed from being a weak woman so that she can replace Macbeth who is mentally weak with her own mental strength in order to successfully become the king. After the killing of Duncan Lady Macbeth accidently hints that she was unable to kill Duncan herself and at this point shows her first signs of mental weakness. After this point they basically change places, Lady Macbeth becomes and insignificant and weak character in the play, who spirals downwards into insanity. She grows so ill that the doctor says there 's nothing he can do to help her. "The disease," he says, "is beyond" his "practice," and what Lady Macbeth needs is "the divine" (a priest or, God), not a "physician". On the other hand Macbeth steps up and plans for himself to murder many more people as his mental strength has significantly grown. Lady Macbeth’s transformation from that of a powerful and "unnaturally" masculine figure into an enfeebled woman reestablishes a sense of "natural" gender order in the play. In other words, Lady Macbeth is put in her place,

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