The Impact of Guilt in Macbeth In the play, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, guilt is a significant theme. Guilt is a feeling caused by knowing or thinking a wrong action was put forward. Feeling guilt is part of being human in society, showing empathy when a mistake that impacts another is made. In the play, Macbeth shows, his guilt after killing King Duncan. Lady Macbeth also shows guilt when she realizes the outcome of her actions. Shakespeare portrays this theme very well by emphasizing the two characters emotions. The theme of guilt is playing a huge role in Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s characters. Macbeth initially shows guilt after killing King Duncan. Not wanting to kill Duncan at first, he lets Lady Macbeth convince him to do so.
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At first, Lady Macbeth does not show sorrow for her actions but as the play goes on, guilt starts to build leading to her paranoid actions. For example, when Macbeth is feeling guilty about killing King Duncan, Lady Macbeth tells him, “ A little water clears us of this of this deed” (2, 2, 67) showing her confident, non-sorrow character. Ironically, later in the play the guilt and remorse come to haunt her. Lady Macbeth is sleep walking and muttering about the horrible act of killing Duncan. Her comments about the blood come back in this scene where she seems to be washing her hands saying "Out damn spot! Out, I say!" (5, 1, 34) in attempt to clean Duncan's invisible blood off of her hands. Shakespeare connects the theme of guilt to Lady Macbeth very well as guilt grows upon her leading her hallucinations. He compares the Lady Macbeth’s hallucination to Duncan’s blood just like he compares Macbeth’s guilt of the ocean not being able to wash the blood off his hands to Duncan’s blood. Lady Macbeth also says, “What’s/ done cannot be undone, to bed, to bed, to bed!” (5, 1 63-64) trying to convince herself not to feel regret. Saying this start’s to show the breakdown of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth dies, perhaps suicide, as her guilt is believed to be the cause of her death. When Macbeth finds out she has passed away, he says, “She should have died hereafter” (5, 5, 17) showing how he already knew she was mentally unstable. The guilt eats away from Lady Macbeth at the end, letting her conscience get the better of her at the
At first, Lady Macbeth does not show sorrow for her actions but as the play goes on, guilt starts to build leading to her paranoid actions. For example, when Macbeth is feeling guilty about killing King Duncan, Lady Macbeth tells him, “ A little water clears us of this of this deed” (2, 2, 67) showing her confident, non-sorrow character. Ironically, later in the play the guilt and remorse come to haunt her. Lady Macbeth is sleep walking and muttering about the horrible act of killing Duncan. Her comments about the blood come back in this scene where she seems to be washing her hands saying "Out damn spot! Out, I say!" (5, 1, 34) in attempt to clean Duncan's invisible blood off of her hands. Shakespeare connects the theme of guilt to Lady Macbeth very well as guilt grows upon her leading her hallucinations. He compares the Lady Macbeth’s hallucination to Duncan’s blood just like he compares Macbeth’s guilt of the ocean not being able to wash the blood off his hands to Duncan’s blood. Lady Macbeth also says, “What’s/ done cannot be undone, to bed, to bed, to bed!” (5, 1 63-64) trying to convince herself not to feel regret. Saying this start’s to show the breakdown of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth dies, perhaps suicide, as her guilt is believed to be the cause of her death. When Macbeth finds out she has passed away, he says, “She should have died hereafter” (5, 5, 17) showing how he already knew she was mentally unstable. The guilt eats away from Lady Macbeth at the end, letting her conscience get the better of her at the