Guilt

• Introduction of guilt

  Though it is the Macbeths’ unchecked, amoral ambition that causes their fall from grace, it is their guilt and paranoia that breaks them. Without guilt, they wouldn’t be driven insane by their deeds. Without paranoia, their murder spree might have begun and ended with Duncan’s death.
• Though both are troubled deeply by their guilt, the Macbeths’ experiences of it and reactions to it are very different, and reveal their differences in character.
• Lady Macbeth 


  Unlike her husband, Lady Macbeth is initially free from any feelings of guilt. Her journey in the play takes her from power and strength to weakness and insanity.

  Whereas Macbeth’s guilt makes him more violent and brutal, Lady Macbeth’s guilt makes her go into herself. She closes herself off to everyone else, cannot be in darkness, and sleep walks as she is trapped in her own guilty thoughts.
• The way her guilt takes over is gradual but destructive, showing how even the most callous (insensitive and cruel) and cold people aren’t immune to God’s judgement and their own human conscience.
• • Shakespeare demonstrates how guilt and regret can’t be escaped Lady Macbeth tells her worried husband, “What’s done, is done,” (3.2), suggesting they can’t change their fate and will just have to live with the consequences.
  • Shakespeare suggests that greed and ambition can’t predict the guilt that comes with making fantasies into reality.
• • The line becomes a refrain for her, as later she mutters to herself in her sleep, “What’s done cannot be undone,” (5.1).
  • The repetition makes it appear like she is trying to convince herself to let go and get the courage to face reality.
  • The change from “is done” to “cannot be undone” gives the impression that her guilt and desperation have increased.
• Shakespeare's Macbeth is a play about the devastating effects of guilt. It is arguably one of the most prominent themes in the play. Due to the way it seizes hold of the protagonist, and leeches from mental capacity. Guilt galvanizers the protagonist actions, drives them to their fatal flaw and ultimate end.
• My mind is full of scorpions

  Shakespeare presents go through macbeth's mental suffering.

  The constant use of Demonic imagery throughout the play Highlights how the protagonist psyche is now full of demonic thoughts and rapidly deteriorating.

  Scorpions with the connotes with death and poison, which suggest how the character is aware of his sinful acqcusation to power and its potential consequences it could cause not only himself but others around him. This is why he suffers.
• MacBeth experiences intense feeling of guilt even before he commits murder as evidence by his hallucinations of a dagger before the deed. After the murder, Macbeth is haunted by guilt ridden visions and is unable to find solstice even in his newfound power.
• This overwhelming sense of guilt serves as a driving force in the character's actions leading them to commit further atrocities in attempt to alleviate their feelings of remorse.
• Topic sentence blood and hallucinations

  Psychological impact of guilt on the Macbeth and LMB profounding manifesting in various ways throughout the play. Macbeth's guilt leads to a deterioration of his mental state as he becomes increasingly Paranoid and unstable.
• • For Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, her guilt and paranoia only manifest fully in her final scenes. At the start, she orchestrates the murder and silences all of Macbeth’s fears and regrets.
  • There are subtle indications that she isn’t as confident and cold as she wants to seem, but her speech is controlled and cutting.
  • Eventually, she is completely unaware of Macbeth’s actions. This division that forms both physically and mentally between the couple portrays guilt as isolating.
• Little water clears us of this Deed-LMB act 5 scene 1

  LMB tries to reassure McBeth

  At this point you hadn't experienced the full repercussions of her contribution in heinous action. The juxposition between the beginning and end of the play highlights how naive she was to have hoped and believe that the consequences wouldn't have not been grave.
• A little water clears us off the deed


  The noun 'deed' downplays her involvement, somehow justifying it in her own twisted way. The motif of water runs throughout the play as due to its prevalence and importance in religion (holy water). In 2,2 LMB uses water to physically remove blood of her hand. By the end of the play, act 5 scene 1, She desperately wants to remove the Blood of her conscience -She is repenting.
• However, this would not sway the Jackie bean audience. The jacobean audience believed in the divine rights of kings making LMB's involvement even more unforgivable. Perhaps Shakespeare wanted to portray the ramifications of disobeying the great chain of being and going against God by explicitly showcasing her shame guilt and sorrow.
• LMB is seen to oppose the early perception of her- a plausible antithesis to her own demeanour
• What might have been a historical or political play that follows the righteous uprising against a tyrannical king becomes a psychological tragedy because of how Shakespeare follows Macbeth’s mental state.
• Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood

  Clean from my hand


  Shakespeare uses blood to symbolise guilt and water to symbolise purity. The metaphor of Neptune's ocean suggests that no amount of 'water' will ever remove the sacrilegious 'stain' of regicide.
• Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood

  Clean from my hand?

  Neptune's ocean'- hyperbolic language exemplifies the depth of Macbeth's guilt as he feels not even a god could save him. 'blood'- motif used throughout the play to symbolise guilt. Macbeth becomes increasingly desensitised to seeing it as he becomes more malevolent. 'my hand- symbolic of Macbeth being the architect of his own downfall.