Examples Of Guilt In Macbeth

Guilt is a major theme throughout the story of Macbeth and the play portrays Macbeth’s guilt in forms of hallucinations, paranoia, and more. Throughout the play, Shakespeare discusses two different points of view on guilt. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth go through immense guilt throughout the play in completely different ways.

In Macbeth, the character Macbeth experiences his guilt in ways that were severe at the time and it is explained within three different scenes throughout the play. Macbeth killed King Duncan in order to become king of Scotland. He did this for a promotion from his position of Thane of Glamis. After he killed King Duncan, he said to himself, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this is my hand will rather the multitudinous seas

The next quote is from Act 2, Scene 2, Line 71, “To know my deed, ‘twere best not know myself.” shows the reader how he would rather not let his mind fathom the fact that he killed someone. The second instance of his guilt was when he saw Banquo's ghost at the banquet in Act 3, Scene 4, and said “If charnel houses and our graves must send those that we bury back, our monuments shall be mawes of kites.” This hallucination causes Macbeth to become even more paranoid and leads to him lashing out at Lady Macbeth for not seeing the ghost. He says, “When now I think you can behold such sights, and keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, when mine is blanched with fear.” in Act 3, Scene 4. Him seeing the person he had killed, brought even more guilt to him and started the hallucinations and paranoia. In an article written on Discus by Cassandra Nelson, “He begins to hallucinate and hear voices. He cannot pray, and he is too fearful and restless to sleep.” These points appear throughout Acts 2 and 3 in quotes already