How Is Guilt Used In Macbeth

In William Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Macbeth, guilt negatively impacts Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. From taking so many innocent lives that didn't deserve to be taken, and Macbeth seeing hallucinations of bodies and knives drives them into a crazed state. For Macbeth, hallucination is probably one of his biggest fears. Macbeth does most of the murdering, as a result he sees the aftermath.

The play “The Tragedy of Macbeth” by William Shakespeare is about how guilt weighs in on a person's conscious and reveals how if strong enough, guilt can make someone so paranoid that they cannot think straight. Macbeth’s guilt begins to rise after he kills King Duncan to gain power. Macbeth first shows his guilt when he says “ To Know my deed ‘twere best not know myself” (2.3 71). Macbeth is basically saying that in order for him to comprehend what he has done, he must lose his conscience. From this point in the story, Macbeth’s guilt avalanches into something huge that Macbeth didn’t expect.

Duncan announces to Macbeth that he will be staying at Inverness castle. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth plan Duncan’s murder, but before killing Duncan, Macbeth has a vision of a bloody dagger and a conversation with himself where he says, “ I see thee still, on thy blade gouts of blood, Which was not so before… It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes” (Shakespeare 2.1.57-61). The idea of the bloody dagger is to point out that there is a temptation and a perfect opportunity to kill Duncan. The dagger is a “false creation” that Macbeth creates in his mind and he sees it covered in blood which gives him the confidence to kill Duncan.

Macbeth enters carrying the bloody dagger that he used to kill Duncan. He's nervous and shaken. He tells Lady Macbeth that he heard a voice saying "sleep no more" but, she tells him to wash the blood from his hand and warns him not to think of the sickly things that he was thinking, and she takes the daggers back in since Macbeth is still in shock of the crime he committed.

Macbeth kills someone and ends up feeling guilty. He wasn’t able to separate what was real life and what wasn’t after the murder. Lady Macbeth wasn’t so innocent either. She kept washing her hands trying to scrub the blood off. The blood on her hands was disguised as guilt.

The initial guilt felt by Macbeth, immediately after killing Duncan has created an abiding unrest within him in which he is unable to feel completely content: “And with thy bloody and invisible hand / Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond / Which keeps me pale!” (3.2.54-6). The oxymoron, ‘bloody and invisible', used to describe the hand, shows a sharp contradiction between appearance and reality by comparing the hidden feelings of guilt to the outer shell of innocence perceived by everyone else. Macbeth must conceal his guilt to lessen any developing suspicions from other characters. To achieve his desired reign as king, which already the audience knows is not possible because of the disruption he has created within the order of society, Macbeth feels obligated to kill everyone that threatens his power.

Throughout the soliloquy, Shakespeare builds tension to coincide with the decision making that Macbeth has to do. He does this first through repetition of the phrase “I see”. Every time this phrase is used, more detail is added to what Macbeth is conveying increases the tension as the dagger gradually starts leading him towards Duncan’s chambers. After this, as Macbeth becomes closer and closer to becoming certain in his decision, Shakespeare personifies murder, saying that it “moves like a ghost”, creating a supernatural atmosphere, as well as alluding to “Tarquin’s ravishing strides”. Tarquin was a tyrannical king, who committed many sacrilegious acts, such as

The soliloquy before the murder of Duncan in the Shakespearean play Macbeth allows the readers to begin to understand the effects Macbeth’s guilt has on his unstable state of mind and how it would lead to descending rationality, visions, and ultimately, his destruction. The illusion of the dagger manifests into a metaphor of Macbeth’s guilt, portraying his obsessiveness with the morality of the murder as it became the sole focus of the soliloquy, haunting him throughout it. “On [the] blade and its’ [handle] [there were] spots of blood” which symbolised the murder he had yet to commit (58). This proves how effective and deep his guilt lies as he already feels shame for an act he has not yet committed, and this guilt led him to conjure up a hallucination

Finally, the vision of a bloody dagger that emerged right before the murder emboldened Macbeth to kill King Duncan. Prior to murdering Duncan, Macbeth was hesitant about following through with his wife 's merciless task. He doubted that he was able to murder one of his most loyal friends, until he saw the vision. On page 43, Act II, scene I, Macbeth sees the apparition: "Is this a dagger that I see before me with its handle turned to my hand?" Macbeth contemplates whether it is a figure of his imagination prompted on by his already guilty conscience, or a supernatural encounter that is compelling him to do the deed.

Unlike Lady Macbeth, Macbeth felt guilty before he murdered King Duncan. Macbeth begins to have second thoughts about whether he wants to go on and murder King Duncan. On his way to murder King Duncan, Macbeth has the vision of the bloody dagger leading the way. While he realizes what he is about to do, he says “Is this a dagger which i see before me, the handle toward my hand”(II, I, 40-41). Macbeth realized that he had to kill King Duncan, but when he sees the dagger, he is imagining what it would feel to actually carry out the plan.

After killing Duncan, Macbeth’s mental state changes completely. The difference between the moment before the murder and the moment after is that Macbeth’s lack of determination. He feels personally responsible for the murder and wishes it never happened. Thus, he is afraid to look at the dead body and face what he has done (2.2.54-56). His regret of the murder shows the transformation of Macbeth’s attitude: he lets his remorse overpower him to the point of madness.

As Macbeth sees the phantom of a dagger before him he says, “on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, which was not so before”(II, i, 46-47). Macbeth, merely, thinking of killing Duncan sees a dagger with large drops of blood on and around it. Before he had no intention of killing Duncan, but now that he has, he can already foresee the guilt to come with the image of the blood stained dagger. Instead heeding the warning the dagger foreshadows, Macbeth instead takes the blood smeared knife as a determination.

Macbeths guilty conscience makes him unable to play the ‘true’ role of a villain of the play. Macbeth begins to see ‘false creations’ before murdering Duncan; the image of a floating dagger taunts Macbeth’s senses. Macbeth is devoured in his anxiety he starts to hallucinate the crime before going through with it. Macbeth is unable to dispose thoughts of his guilt and doubt, which prevents him from being stuck at the point where it is too late to turn back, yet the fear of his nature prevents him from turning completely into a ruthless coldblooded

In the drama “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” William Shakespeare reflects on guilt . More specifically, Shakespeare implies guilt and how repercussions of guilt can be detrimental towards an individual because it creates emotional instability and distorted judgement. Guilt is displayed many times throughout the play, but mostly through internal conflicts of Macbeth. For instance, Macbeth feels internal guilt when he murdered King Duncan. Macbeth says, “ I’ll go no more/

In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, guilt can punish people even if they are not caught, which is illustrated with the downfall of the Macbeths. Shortly after killing Banquo, Macbeth starts to hallucinate and says “Hence, horrible shadow! Unreal mockery, hence”(3.4.128-129). This quote shows that Macbeth feels guilt while he is imagining Banquo’s ghost.