macbeth- guilt, innocence, paranoia

• Macbeths


  • Unchecked, amoral ambition causes their fall from grace
  • Guilt and paranoia 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
• Killing a king was a provocative subject


  When 'Macbeth' was first being written and performed
• • Jacobean Britain was a very religious, Christian country
  • People believed God was all-seeing, so would see every sin and crime someone committed
  • No one was exempt from His judgement
• Shakespeare supports this idea by showing how the Macbeths are put through a sort of hell, despite their crime not being known by anyone else
• Innocence


  • A virtue that Shakespeare, in keeping with Christianity, celebrates
  • The Macbeths pursue a facade of innocence while plotting their murders, and as they descend further into their web of violence, they long to regain their lost innocence
  • Malcolm, a posterboy of youthful innocence and virtue, is the rightful king of Scotland, showing how goodness is the correct way to be given power
• 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
• Macbeth's guilt


  • Focused on the murder, as he expresses his greatest remorse directly before and after he kills Duncan
  • After that, his guilt comes in the form of paranoia, and this sends him on a frenzied murder spree
  • Shakespeare suggests guilt and conscience are more powerful than ambition
• • After killing Duncan, Macbeth claims "To know my deed, 'twere best not know my self"
  • The perception of himself as an honourable hero has died along with Duncan
  • He would rather be unconscious or forget who he is than look at what he's done
• Paranoia


  • 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: '"O, full of scorpions is my mind"'


  confessing his feeling of near insanity through the use of a metaphor that links his ‘mind’ to one of the most feared, poisonous creatures in the world. Macbeth’s choice of metaphor gives representation to the toxic effects of the witches’ intervention in his life and also foreshadows the eventual downfall of both Macbeth and his wife through their murderous greed
• Lady Macbeth


  • 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 insane
  • 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 and cold people aren't immune to God's judgement and their own human conscience
• Lady Macbeth's attempt to "unsex" herself


  • Indicates she is capable of feeling guilt, but wants to repress these feelings because she views them as weaknesses
  • The only way to overcome guilt is to not feel it, as Shakespeare implies guilt is too powerful to ignore
• • Lady Macbeth envies the dead for their peace of mind
  • She is becoming aware of the infinite cycle of violence they have got themselves into to satisfy their paranoia
  • Shakespeare shows that sins and crimes are never rewarded, so that the perpetrators are only left with their remorse
• Blood


  • A symbol of guilt and death in Macbeth
  • The Macbeths can't escape it no matter how much they try to wash it away
• Hallucinations and ghosts


  Symbols of guilt and death, as they point to the existence of an Afterlife and the invisible world of the supernatural
• Lady Macbeth's view of blood


  • Believes the simple act of washing their hands will rid them of both the physical blood but also the mental guilt of their deed
  • She isn't focused on what the murder says about them or the mental impact it will have, only the implications of if they get caught with blood on their hands
• Macbeth's view of blood


  Shocked by the blood on his hands, knowing their guilt goes beyond the literal "blood" on their "hands"
• Lady Macbeth orders Macbeth to get water


  To wash the "filthy witness" and "deed" from his hand
• Lady Macbeth can't confront the reality of her actions, only referring to blood with euphemisms
• Macbeth is shocked by the blood on his hands


  Knows their guilt goes beyond the literal blood
• "All great Neptune's ocean" will not wash off his sin

  Macbeth's reference to "Neptune" to Reflects how he has turned his back on God

  forever stained by the blood symbolising guilt he will forever feel
• Macbeth's hallucinations


  Blood-soaked visions that reflect his guilt
• Macbeth cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined, suggesting his guilt has already taken hold
• "Heat-oppressed brain"


  Refers to the pressure guilt places on Macbeth, portraying guilt as a disease
• Lady Macbeth is dismissive of Macbeth's hallucinations at first


  But is later tormented by her own visions
• Sleep


  Symbol of innocence and peace, but denied to the Macbeths after the murder
• Macbeth shall sleep no more


  Symbolises his active, haunted conscience
• Macbeth mistakes death for a form of "sleep", suggesting murder and death has taken over his mindset
• Lady Macbeth's sleep is disturbed by sleepwalking, suggesting her mind is always racing
• The Macbeths call upon darkness to mask their crimes


  Reflective of them turning their back on God and goodness
• Lady Macbeth is more concerned about discovery, wanting to stop "heaven peep[ing] through the blanket of the dark"
• Macbeth's guilt and paranoia worsen as the play progresses


  Reflected in his increasingly hellish, grotesque language
• Lady Macbeth's guilt and paranoia only manifest fully in her final scenes


  Portrays guilt as isolating
• Lady Macbeth: '"What's done, is done"'



  confessing his feeling of near insanity through the use of a metaphor that links his ‘mind’ to one of the most feared, poisonous creatures in the world. Macbeth’s choice of metaphor gives representation to the toxic effects of the witches’ intervention in his life and also foreshadows the eventual downfall of both Macbeth and his wife through their murderous greed
• Macbeth: '"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"'



  Shakespeare shows that Macbeth’s ambition is punished, not rewarded. The metaphor “put rancours in the vessel of my peace” suggests his guilt and paranoia has polluted his soul
• Ross: '"Alas, poor country, / Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot / Be called our mother, but our grave"'



  • 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
• Macbeth: “But wherefore could not I pronounce ‘Amen’? / I had most need of blessing and ‘Amen’ / Stuck in my throat,” (2.2)”


  deeply distressed and upset by this experience. It seems 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. The metaphor “stuck in my throat” evokes the image of a barrier blocking Macbeth from God.
• While wondering if he should really kill Duncan, Macbeth acknowledges, “We’d jump the life to come,” 


  a reference to the afterlife, which Christians believed would be granted to those who honoured God. Macbeth knows committing murder will sacrifice his life in Heaven, making him fully mortal and abandoned by God. The threat of this is enough to make Macbeth reconsider his plan, showing the power religion and belief had over people at the time. Shakespeare suggests Macbeth should have listened to his conscience and faith rather than to his wife.