Lady Macbeth's Guilt Essay

Being caught red handed is a universal symbol of guilt in the sense that one has done something unwholesome, but it usually does not equate to the feeling of remorse, as it does in Shakespeare’s tragedy of Macbeth. No one catches Lady Macbeth with literal blood on her hands, but she still has an unclean conscience long after the murder. Bloody hands symbolize the guilt held within Lady Macbeth, significantly playing into her character development, transitioning her from cold hearted and unfeeling to insane from remorse, leading her to kill herself with her own hands. Directly after the murder of Duncan, Macbeth feels much more guilty than Lady Macbeth, and creates a metaphor comparing guiltiness to the cleanliness of one’s hand, while Lady Macbeth does not yet understand the remorse that he feels. Macbeth, instantly feeling guilty following his first murder, references the redness of his hands and the inability to wash it of Duncan's blood, asking no one in particular, "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood/ Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather/ The multitudinous seas incarnadine,/Making the green…

of glory, the Macbeths choose to capture the throne for themselves. Macbeth’s mind gradually deteriorates after King Duncan’s murder, and after Macbeth becomes king, he finds himself killing to defend his new, uncertain situation. Lady Macbeth, however, conceals her inner turmoil, and for some time appears unaffected until her distress that Macbeth continues to kill causes her subconscious to become wracked with guilt. Through Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s…

In the beginning of the play Macbeth, it can be seen that the driving force behind the plotted murder of King Duncan was, in fact, Lady Macbeth. However, as the play progresses, Lady Macbeth's mental state deteriorates and she is no longer the driving force in the relationship. This is shown clearly in one of her last soliloquies (5.1.37-42) where she is sleepwalking through Dunsinane and plagued with memories of the night Duncan was murdered. This soliloquy reveals her guilt towards the murder…

overlook our guilt, it can prompt to diluting our conscious and lead to a more serious matter of PTSD. In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare states his concept of guilt for pictures for the audience to see how Macbeth and Lady Macbeth develop PTSD. Blood and water are two images in Macbeth that capacity as keys to open the shrouded message of the impacts of guilt. Blood…

blood is changing color from green to red,and this indicates the guilt within Macbeth is always going to be there, like a stain. Blood also has a great representation of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s conscience. Shakespeare’s imagery of blood constantly lingers in the character’s minds. When the blood appears for…

aspiring king, Macbeth takes many forward actions to achieve kingship. Many of these actions conducted and rehearsed by his wife Lady Macbeth. Since the start of their relationship, Lady Macbeth has always attempted to act as the superior figure, priding herself on her masculinity and inhumane morals. She constantly looks down on her husband whenever he begins to show natural human emotions. Lady Macbeth’s need to overpower her husband and attain glory for herself as well as her family prompts…

Dictionary, Guilt is “a feeling of anxiety or unhappiness that you have done something immoral or wrong, such as causing harm to another person.” In William Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, Shakespeare uses blood imagery which symbolizes murder and guilt to show that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s characters emotionally evolve inversely. Macbeth transitions from a guilt-ridden to a guilt free, callous person while Lady Macbeth transitions from a guilt-free, callous person to a guilt-ridden person. In…

Guilt and betrayal of conscience are part of every human’s nature and it is something that can change ones course of life and actions. In the story of Macbeth, the constant theme of guilt and their conscience is shown through many characters, but it is mainly demonstrated through, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth longed for her husband to be king, because she wanted the throne and she went to desperate measures to gain it. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth both had many experiences that they went…

appears, explore the character of Lady Macbeth showing how she changes during the course of the play. Lady Macbeth is a character in Shakespeare's Macbeth and the wife of the play's antagonist, Macbeth, a Scottish nobleman, who plays a pivotal role in the events of the production. During the course of the play, Lady Macbeth goes from terrifying audiences with her otherworldly power and ruthless approach to the play’s terrible deeds to becoming a sleepwalking madwoman, wracked by the guilt from…

Lady Macbeth, Destroyed by Blood If someone has ever done anything that has made them look back and regret it, they have experienced guilt. Guilt is a powerful emotion. If people do not deal with that emotion they can end up depressed and it can lead to thoughts or actions that can be harmful; however, there are stages people can go through to help deal with those emotions. First there is denial then there is anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare wanted…