Guilt, innocence and paranoia

• Themes in Macbeth

  • Guilt
  • Innocence
  • Paranoia
• Speaker: 'Quote'
• Unchecked, amoral ambition causes the Macbeths' fall from grace
• Guilt and paranoia break the Macbeths
• Without guilt, the Macbeths wouldn't be driven insane by their deeds
• Without paranoia, their murder spree might have begun and ended with Duncan's death
• Killing a king was a provocative subject when 'Macbeth' was first being written and performed
• James VI of Scotland became the new king of England after Elizabeth I died without an heir
• The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was an assassination attempt on James VI and members of Parliament
• Shakespeare condemns regicide by illustrating how guilt destroyed the Macbeths
• Jacobean Britain was a very religious, Christian country
• People believed God was all-seeing, so would see every sin and crime someone committed
• Shakespeare supports the idea that guilt destroyed the Macbeths despite their crime not being known by anyone else
• The Macbeths are destroyed by their own guilt, suggesting their innate goodness rebelled against their deliberate immorality
• Innocence is a virtue celebrated by Shakespeare
• The Macbeths pursue a facade of innocence while plotting their murders
• Malcolm is portrayed as a posterboy of youthful innocence and virtue
• Macbeth's guilt is focused on the murder of Duncan
• Shakespeare suggests guilt and conscience are more powerful than ambition
• Macbeth acknowledges the afterlife and the consequences of his actions on his soul
• Macbeth knows committing murder will sacrifice his life in Heaven, making him mortal and abandoned by God
• Shakespeare suggests Macbeth should have listened to his conscience and faith rather than to his wife
• Shakespeare shows the moral and religious consequences of being guilty
• Macbeth is deeply distressed and upset by the denial of God's forgiveness
• Macbeth continues: '“But wherefore could not I pronounce ‘Amen’? / I had most need of blessing and ‘Amen’ / Stuck in my throat,” (2.2)'
• Macbeth is scared because he has been denied God’s forgiveness, so knows he is damned
• The phrase “I had most need of blessing” reveals his regret, for he is desperate to reclaim his innocence
• Metaphor


  “stuck in my throat” evokes the image of a barrier blocking Macbeth from God
• Guilt is presented as an intense fear of knowing yourself and facing what you have done
• After killing Duncan, Macbeth claims: '“To know my deed, ‘twere best not know myself,” (2.2)'
• The perception of Macbeth as an honourable hero has died along with Duncan
• Macbeth would rather be unconscious or forget who he is than look at what he’s done
• Macbeth’s regret is echoed later in the play, when Ross says of Scotland
• Shakespeare shows how Macbeth’s guilt has clouded the country in uncertainty and weakness
• Ross suggests Scotland is “almost afraid to know itself” because it cannot face what it has become
• The same is true of Macbeth himself, meaning the king and his country are identical
• Paranoia is portrayed as a poison that is relentless and inescapable
• Macbeth loses all his heroic qualities because of his fears, and he becomes murderous even as he descends into madness
• Macbeth says: '“For Banquo’s issue have I filed my mind; / For them, the gracious Duncan have I murdered, / Put rancours in the vessel of my peace / Only for them,” (3.1)'
• Shakespeare shows that Macbeth’s ambition is punished, not rewarded