Examples Of Guilt In Macbeth

Guilt In “Macbeth” Everyone knows the feeling of being guilty at one point in their lives. It’s always on your mind and you typically feel bad about what you did. It isn’t until you confess to what you did that you can feel better about it. If you don’t ever confess, then that is something that will haunt you forever. It is shown that throughout the play, “Macbeth, the main theme presented is guilt. You can see how different people react to guilt and how it destroys their lives. It’s at the beginning of the play when we see that Macbeth is first affected by guilt. Macbeth is the one that struggles the most with it. “Had I died an hour before this chance, I had lived a blessed time; for from this instant there’s nothing serious in mortality: All is but toys. Renown and grace is dead, the wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees is left this vault to brag of”(329). Here we see an example of Macbeth struggling. He would have rather

“Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee”(322). Macbeth chose to take this dagger and kill. He is giving in to the temptations that are around him. After the murder, he does feel guilty again. “ ‘I’ll go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done: Look on’t again I dare not.’ ‘Infirm in purpose! Give me the daggers’ ”(324). At this part in the story, Macbeth is scared and he turned the dagger down, but when the time comes again, he will choose violence. Macbeth has gotten to the point that he’s so guilty, he hallucinates. “Avaunt! And quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee! Thy bones are marrowless, they blood is cold; Thou hast no speculation in those eyes which thou doest glare with”(347). Macbeth is startled when he sees a ghost at banqou’s spot at the table. He had just finished making a toast to him, and the guilt is coming for him