Macbeth Guilt Quotes Analysis

Fear and lack thereof can play a strong role when making decisions and taking actions. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth first appears to be a strong woman in control of her husband, then becomes the main instigator of the bloody events that follow. Oddly enough, she disappears halfway through the play until shortly before her death, never seen again fully conscious. This is a stark contrast to her husband’s change from a fearful, guilt-stricken subject to an almost fearless supposed tyrant, before he too, dies off-screen.

A Guilty Conscience: How Guilt Drives the Powerful to Insanity Guilt is the cause of the destruction of many, particularly in Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Macbeth. As Macbeth and Lady Macbeth continue to murder for the sake of power, they embark on opposite journeys but their guilt ultimately drives them both to insanity. Macbeth goes from being driven mad with guilt, to his instability causing him to murder recklessly. His wife goes from expressing no compassion or guilt to her guilt overcoming her and driving her to madness.

Macbeth is the Shakespearean play that features the triumphant uprise and the inevitable downfall of its main character. In this play, Macbeth’s downfall can be considered to be the loss of his moral integrity and this is achieved by ambition, despite this, Lady Macbeth and the witches work through his ambition, furthering to assist his inevitable ruin. Ambition alone is the most significant factor that led to Macbeth’s downfall. The witches are only able to influence his actions through Macbeth’s pre-existing and the three witches see that Macbeth has ambition and uses it to control his action. Ambition alone is displayed throughout the play to be the most significant cause for Macbeth’s downfall.

Guilt plays a strong role in motivating Macbeth, and causes Lady Macbeth to be driven over the edge of her being insane leading to her death. Throughout the story, there are many different types of guilty feelings that play a role in Macbeth’s fatal decisions and bring Lady Macbeth to commit suicide. Although there are many instances that show the power guilt has played on the main characters, there are three examples

Through the language Shakespeare uses in Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene, he makes it clear Lady Macbeth suffers from extreme guilt about what she has done. When she talks to herself in her sleep Lady Macbeth speaks with a euphony. She says, “The Thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now? What, will these hands ne’er be clean?” (V.i.38-39)

Furthermore, the deep seated guilt and haunted conscience portrayed by Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy in Act 5 Scene 1 is a representation of my lasting influence over her. During the 1600’s, one’s loyalty to their king had no higher responsibility. Shakespeare has intentionally influenced the reader of significance of Lady Macbeth’s regicide and evil. With the use of imagery, Lady Macbeth called upon my evil spirits to help her convince Macbeth to commit regicide as she speaks, “Come, you spirits, That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe”. Lady Macbeth called upon my spirits to fill her entirely with evil spirits.

A Comparative Between Lady Macbeth and Daisy Buchanan In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby and William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth the main women struggle to cope with the circumstances they face in their lives. Both Lady Macbeth and Daisy Buchanan reveal their feelings of disillusionment through the alienation in their relationships, the murders that take place, and through their common desire to be at the top of the social order. Their actions have an impact on others but most importantly have consequences for themselves.

Walking in the night he heard the screams of women and said “I have almost forgot the taste of fear” (V.v.9). The shriek of women at the late of night would frighten most all of us, but not macbeth. He has been around so many wicked acts and it does not faze him. After getting news of his wife’s death he told the messenger “She should of died hereafter” (V.v.17). Although he does feel sorrow over her, he blames her death as an inconvenience.

Although introduced as a thoroughly hardened, ambitious woman, Lady Macbeth’s seemingly unbreakable character shatters when she is consumed by the demon of guilt. The guilt of Lady Macbeth seems nonexistent when she persuades Macbeth to kill King Duncan, but the heinous acts she and her husband commit throughout the play strain her slowly. Eventually, the guilt Lady Macbeth harbors emerges from her subconscious and crumbles her. The downfall of Lady Macbeth reveals that even the toughest, strongest, and most powerful people can succumb to guilt. At the commencement of William Shakespeare’s

This portrays that their murders have caused them to advance to insanity. The guilt consumes her just like Macbeth. Macbeth character growth to progress a sociopath as his actions feed through fear caused by the guilt. He says, “I am in blood \ Stepped in so far that, [if I continue], \ returning were [the same as to continue murder]” (III.

William Shakespeare portrayed the character Lady Macbeth to be extremely ruthless, malicious and manipulative. Thus, being the reason she could easily convince Macbeth to do her will, yet still put on such a convincing performance in front of those who knew nothing of her and her husband’s actions. Lady Macbeth shows her complexity constantly throughout the story when she shares her view-point on masculinity by demasculinizing her own husband, when she strategically plans the murder of the King Duncan, and finally when she finally goes crazy because of the guilt she possesses for not only her own actions but also turning her own husband into a

From Macbeth feeling “drowned in blood”, to Lady Macbeth not being able to wash her hands, shows how guilt will always come from making bad decisions. One wrong choice can ruin a person's life

Macbeth has not been communicating with his wife on his bloody desires and is very dissociated with her. He does seek comfort from her however but never truly makes time for Lady Macbeth. For example, when Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking and expressing her anxious thoughts on their murders, her husband is nowhere to be seen. This feeling is clearly shown when he loses his humility and soul and becomes “something wicked” (Macbeth, IV. I, 45).

Being guilty in driving Macbeth to his first murder, which leads to even more assassinations of other innocent people, she becomes psychologically damaged. While Lady Macbeth sleepwalks, she accidentally reveals her feelings about her family’s actions. Macbeth, being fearful of her sleepwalking, called on a doctor, who had said to the gentlewoman, “Unnatural deeds/ Do breed unnatural troubles. Infected minds/ To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets” (V.i.75-77).

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.