Macbeth Guilt Essay

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.

Guilt is a feeling of remorse or unhappiness over an experience that has occurred. A person who is described and considered as “strong” can also be open to a feeling of guilt. “The Tragedy of Macbeth” shows how symbolism and characterization is illustrated by the characters personal conditions being described. Ultimately, Guilt has become the problem of their struggle. The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare reveals guilt leads to corruption.

The consequences of the murder Macbeth performed indicate his guilt and fear. Macbeth is witnessing a contribution to his demise and becomes paranoid due to his measures. Besides, allow us to oppose the statements and provide valuable evidence to prove they are

Shakespeare reflects Macbeth’s descent into moral corruption by shaping Macbeth’s thoughts to acknowledge himself as immersed in deep bloodshed. Macbeth’s belief that it would be difficult to turn back from his actions, as Shakespeare intended, illustrates his egocentric trait. Macbeth either doesn’t want to or doesn’t see any other path than to continue his heinous acts. Macbeth only thinks about the actions that benefit him to continue as king. Shakespeare ruins Macbeth’s ego by having his desires unchecked or seen by anyone else, leading him to corrupt himself further and harm

“For brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name – disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel, which smoked with bloody execution, like valor’s minion carved out his passage till he faced the slave; which nev’r shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, till he unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops, and fixed his head upon our battlements” (Act 1, Scene 2). His conscience in the beginning of the tragedy is clear and serene. This all ends when he decides to murder King Duncan. Macbeth starts to feel consumed with his guilty conscience, which makes him hallucinate. “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand?

What makes a moral person? Although morality is malleable, no truly moral person escapes the natural human instinct of guilt. These universal ideas are conveyed throughout Shakespeare’s 17th-century play ‘Macbeth’ and Mark Brozel’s 2005 modern film adaptation, ‘Macbeth Retold’. But why is Shakespeare still relevant in this day and age? Well, “William Shakespeare’s work is not of an age, but for all time”.

For starters when Macbeth says, “In the affliction of these terrible dreams that shake us nightly: better be with the dead, whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace that on the torture of the mind to lie in restless ecstacy” it proves that the theme that the feeling of guilt can destroy one’s quality of life is true. This is because Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are now envious of Duncan because whilst dead he is finally at peace and they aren’t at peace even whilst having what they wanted in the fear of danger. Plus the quote shows how macbeth is being tormented by his actions (the murders more specifically) which brings the topics of morality(?), guilt and paranoia. Because of his increase of power Macbeth could be feeling more paranoid as he is being tormented by his mind so he could start to think that he is being targeted. Another example of metaphor is when he says “O, full of scorpions is my mind dear wife!”

5-7). In this instance, Macbeth shows that he can feel guilt, and he exhibits this by demonstrating that he does not desire to end the life of a man whose family was already victimized at his hands. Guilt is the one thing throughout the entire play that stops Macbeth dead in his tracks and causes him to take a moment to consider his present and future courses of action. Although Macbeth was lead to commit murder by the witches’ manipulative predictions of the future, he is the one who ultimately makes the choices that prove that he is in control of his actions, even when his actions cause him to be filled with

Macbeth’s guilt over just thinking about killing Duncan is being symbolized by seeing a

Guilt is a fate far worse than death. An emotion as influential as guilt has the ability to plague one’s mind and drive one to the brink of insanity. In William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, the continuous appearance of blood symbolizes the guilt tormenting the mind of the central character, Macbeth. Macbeth’s inclination toward power leads him down a dark path of becoming king and results in the murder of various innocents.

He has no choice but to accept the bloodshed, knowing the guilt will only weaken his ambition. The more bloodshed, the more the weight of guilt is added to Macbeth. The awareness of his actions leads to overarching ambition. His desire for power is the essential reasoning behind all the murders. Shakespeare highlights to society how inevitable guilt can be, and the mental change on an individual.

Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair/And make my seated/heart knock at my ribs,/Against the use of nature? Present fears/Are less than horrible imaginings” (1:3:130-143). In this aside, Macbeth is probing his mind because if the prophecy is a good thing, then why is he contemplating murdering Duncan? Through this aside, the audience starts to see the planting of a seed in the psyche of Macbeth to murder

Despite this action not explicitly conveying the emotion of guilt, being alarmed is an act which we tend to associate with having an inner guilty feeling as well as conscience. This guilty sensation within Banquo causes him to commit further horrendous acts throughout the play but also opens up the idea of internal conflict within him. This internal conflict being the inability for his conscience to tell right from wrong, creating mixed feelings within him, most notably guilt. Another time we see the portrayal of guilt and conscience is during the hallucination of a bloody dagger prior to the death of Duncan. This scene is quite different from the other multiple depictions of guilt as we see the guilt of Macbeth being portrayed as a vision rather than a physical act which he experiences when being confronted by a blood-stained dagger before he even commits the murder, clearly implying Macbeth feeling this sense of guilt even before committing the deed.

Guilt can have a negative impact on one’s health and one’s mental state. In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, a strong and confident woman becomes a victim of guilt. The protagonist’s wife thirst for power leads to her to insanity and eventual death. Lady Macbeth’s ambition turns into regret. Furthermore, her dedication turns into desperation.

Macbeth was contemplating the consequences of murdering Duncan and foresees his future of being overthrown by righteousness. He is worried that “This even-handed justice/ Commends th’ ingredience if our poisoned chalice/ To our own lips.” (1.7.10-12). Macbeth, at this point, have not been obsessed with lust for power. He raised self-awareness that the violence he used to wrongly proclaim himself king will be used to take vengeance against him.