What Role Does Guilt Play In Macbeth

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.

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

Macbethsmiserable reign starts with immediate guilt. Macbeth kills the current King of Scotland, King Duncan. Macbeth feels guilt as soon as he commits the murder and is terrified that he will be caught and punished for his crime. “ How is’t with me when every noise appalls

His brutality is balanced by his guilt – a quality that enables the audience to identify with Macbeth throughout the play despite his tyranny. At the start of the play Macbeth is described as a hero and this quality is still present even in his darkest and cruelest moments. Shakespeare suggests this idea by engendering Macbeth to have a strong sense of guilt. When Macbeth is visited by the ghost of Banquo, his best friend who he murdered to protect his secret , he embodies guilt from the presence of his transparent friend. Macbeth shows weakness and almost reveals the truth about King Duncan's murder. However, Macbeth's guilt is not enough to discourage him from his heinous acts of murder. This highlights Macbeth lack of morality as the play

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

He also regrets his actions when he realizes that “for Banquo’s issue [he] has filed [his] mind; for them the gracious Duncan [he] has murdered; put rancors in the vessel of [his] peace only for them” (III.i.64-68). His statement that he “has filed [his] mind” reveals that he is already starting to go mad (III.i.65). In an attempt to lessen his guilt, Macbeth attempts to ensure that only he will reap all of the benefits of his actions by ordering the murderers to kill Banquo and Fleance. Macbeth further shows his madness in his statement that he is “in blood stepped in so far that, should [he] wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er” (III.v.137-139). In saying this, Macbeth reveals that he thinks that he must kill

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

One thing that is covered in Macbeth is that there are many times in the play that characters show guilt. One prime example of this is when in the story after king Duncan was killed it started to affect both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Later in the play a doctor was called to take a look at Lady Macbeth to see what was wrong with her. Lady Macbeth's servant has said that she seen her sleepwalking and saying weird things. At the moment Lady

Macbeth’s guilt first starts when he kills Duncan. Right after he does the deed, he says “Who’s there? What. ho!”

In The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare, guilt is one of the primary themes. Guilt affects one’s emotions, thoughts, behavior, and actions. The main character who is greatly affected by guilt is Macbeth. Throughout this tragedy, Macbeth continually encounters obstacles and consequences because of the immoral choices he makes. Macbeth evidently undergoes guilt when he sees a floating dagger, when he has red on his hands, and when he sees the ghost of Banquo.

Macbeth’s guilt had caused him to succumb to fear.

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.

Macbeth’s sense of self seems to diminish as he comes to reality with what he has done and who he has hurt. This leads to him to not being able to sleep because he has “murdered and therefore/Cawdor/Shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more” (2.2.55-57). By him not sleeping it shows that he is going crazy, and is not ok with what has happened. Losing his sense of self is also slowly killing his mental state. His conscience is guilty which makes him think less of himself. When Banquo’s ghost appears it makes Macbeth feel as if he were dead. Wanting Banquo to “Take any shape but that,” because he wants him to “be alive again/And dare [him] to the desert with thy sword” (3.4.124-126). When Macbeth’s fears are confirmed about the line of kings all in the image of Banquo his future is shaken. Once being trusted friends this also helps to twist his mental state; and not for the good. Also by him not being stable Macbeth starts hallucinating and feels tempted to grasp what he sees and use it. These visions are a

So he kills many more people who he believes suspect him of murder. He becomes suspicious and insecure. He is scared of what he has done and fearful of deeds to follow. One of the main pieces of evidence that portrays a breakdown within the person is Macbeth's inability to sleep. This comes forward in Act two Scene 2 "I heard a voice cry `Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep'" (lines 33-34). Sleep was seen as the natural end to the day and it was unnatural to not be able to sleep. Macbeth lost the ability to restore himself within his mind and his body, therefore becoming abnormal. The fact that Banquo's ghost appeared to him at the banquet shows his troubled conscience - his murderous deeds are playing on his mind. The vision of the ghost also represents the fact that after Macbeth killed Banquo, he entered into the world of the supernatural at a level that he had never stooped to before. All the evidence above portrays a steadily growing breakdown within the person - within Macbeth.