What Have I Done?
In “Sonnet 19” by John Milton, and “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare, both of the main characters experience crippling depression. While Milton’s speaker is losing his vision, Lady Macbeth is coming to grips with the murders she has orchestrated. Common sense seems to dictate that both characters mental illness is the result of physical troubles. However, it is not blindness or death that causes their depression, but guilt. The word guilt is used to describe the feeling of responsibility for committing a violation, crime, or wrong whether it is real or imagined. For Milton’s speaker, he commits a moral crime by not living his life to the fullest. While Lady Macbeth, realizes how much wrong she has done in the world. In “Sonnet 19” Milton uses allusion, metaphor, imagery and word choice to illustrate how guilt is overwhelming the speaker. Similarly, in “Macbeth”, Shakespeare also uses some of the same literary devices to demonstrate Lady Macbeth’s illness. Ultimately both characters are not satisfied with what they have done, or not done in their lives thus far, and the guilt from this leads to deep depression.
In “Sonnet 19”, the speaker is struggling with the fact that he is going blind, rendering him unable to perform physical tasks. However, the depression the speaker feels is in response to the emotional experience of guilt. For instance, the speaker reflects on his life, When I consider how my light is spent, Ere half my days, in this dark world …show more content…
However, both works share interesting similarities. Both authors incorporate word choice, metaphors, and imagery to convey the feeling of depression from guilt into their poetry. It is important to note each character faced a different journey that led to these crippling emotions. But what each journey shares is the idea of accomplishment, or lack
In “Sonnet 19” by John Milton, and “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare, both of the main characters experience crippling depression. While Milton’s speaker is losing his vision, Lady Macbeth is coming to grips with the murders she has orchestrated. Common sense seems to dictate that both characters mental illness is the result of physical troubles. However, it is not blindness or death that causes their depression, but guilt. The word guilt is used to describe the feeling of responsibility for committing a violation, crime, or wrong whether it is real or imagined. For Milton’s speaker, he commits a moral crime by not living his life to the fullest. While Lady Macbeth, realizes how much wrong she has done in the world. In “Sonnet 19” Milton uses allusion, metaphor, imagery and word choice to illustrate how guilt is overwhelming the speaker. Similarly, in “Macbeth”, Shakespeare also uses some of the same literary devices to demonstrate Lady Macbeth’s illness. Ultimately both characters are not satisfied with what they have done, or not done in their lives thus far, and the guilt from this leads to deep depression.
In “Sonnet 19”, the speaker is struggling with the fact that he is going blind, rendering him unable to perform physical tasks. However, the depression the speaker feels is in response to the emotional experience of guilt. For instance, the speaker reflects on his life, When I consider how my light is spent, Ere half my days, in this dark world …show more content…
However, both works share interesting similarities. Both authors incorporate word choice, metaphors, and imagery to convey the feeling of depression from guilt into their poetry. It is important to note each character faced a different journey that led to these crippling emotions. But what each journey shares is the idea of accomplishment, or lack