Macbeth's guilt

• "Methought I heard a voice cry "Sleep no more: Macbeth does murder sleep" (act 2, scene 2)


  -spoken to lady Macbeth

  -Macbeth believes he's destroyed his own peace and he'll never sleep again because of his guilt

  -sleep was linked to innocence and gods blessing- to "murder sleep" was to murder purity
• "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?" (act 2, scene 2)


  -soliloquy

  -the symbolism implies he feels his guilt so vast it would stain the entire ocean and nothing can cleanse his conscience

  -blood is seen as a symbol of guilt runs through the play Neptune is the roman god of the sea which shows the scale of his guilt
• "O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife" (act 3, scene 2)


  juxtaposition of scorpions and dear wife shows how macbeth is still affectionate which reinforces him as a tragic hero

  -he believes he has poisoned his own mind
• "Out, damned spot! Out, I say!" (act 5, scene 1)


  the spot is a symbol of her guilt, representing how her being androgynous leads to consequences

  in Shakespeares time, madness was seen as divine punishment for sin or moral corruption
• "Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle towards my hand?" (act 2, scene 1)


  Macbeth is so consumed by guilt that he hallucinates a dagger that guilds him to commit murder

  Jacobean audiences believed in supernatural visions as signs of guilt or demonic temptation
• "Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes from arabia will not sweeten this little hand" (act 5, scene 1)


  she is so consumed by guilt that she is hallucinating about the blood on her hand after killing duncan

  the christian Jacobean audience would see the metaphorically blood, representing sin