Macbeth's Guilt

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth set in Scotland, tells the story of Macbeth, who is influenced by three witches. After killing the King and his best friend, he is eventually destroyed by his conscience. In the play, the symbols blood, sleep, and darkness all symbolize Macbeth’s guilt, which consumes his mind because he does not change his behavior. To start with, blood is perhaps the most obvious representation of Macbeth’s guilt. He says that “Great Neptune’s ocean [could not] wash [the] blood / Clean from [his] hand[s]” (Shakespeare 2.2.61-62). He sees this blood on his hands, not because it really will not wash off, but because his conscience is imagining it. The fact that he is referencing not just a body of water, but all of Neptune’s ocean …show more content…
He is expressing his guilt for killing King Duncan, after all, he was very trusted by him. This blood ties back to the theme of guilt, for it represents the guilt that Macbeth cannot rid himself of. This emphasizes how guilt can consume someone, for Macbeth is being driven mad by this blood yet he keeps killing. To contrast, sleep represents innocence and purity which Macbeth rids himself of. Macbeth overhears that he murders “innocent sleep,” (Shakespeare 2.2.36) and truly does kill sleep in every sense. He destroys his innocence and purity, kills King Duncan while he is sleeping and because of this is so consumed with guilt, he literally cannot sleep but again, he does not change anything about his behavior. Lastly, darkness and light contrast each other in representing good and evil. Macbeth wants the “...stars [to] hide [their] fires; / [and] Let not light see [his] black and deep desires” (Shakespeare 1.4.52-53). Light represents what is good and right, but dark represents his betrayal and sin. Macbeth does not want the stars to shine on him, for he knows in his heart that what he is doing is wrong. Overall, Macbeth’s guilt is found in numerous symbols in the