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The Progression Of Guilt In Macbeth By William Shakespeare

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The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare demonstrates various feelings of guilt in the main characters throughout the play. The vital characters in this play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, change their point of view drastically when remembering and analyzing their first wrongdoing until the last. Shakespeare displays different progressions of guilt in The Tragedy of Macbeth through Macbeth and Lady Macbeth at the beginning and end of the play. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth’s guilt was very prominent. When contemplating whether or not he should murder King Duncan or not, he struggles to come to a decision due to his morals at the time. Eventually, he is pressured into killing Duncan, and after the murder is committed, Macbeth is struggling to come to terms with what he has done. Lady Macbeth says to him, “Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there. Go, carry them and smear the sleepy grooms with blood” (2.2.62-64). However, Macbeth is …show more content…

She was the one initiating the plans and making sure the murder happened. Herbert Coursen writes in “In Deepest Consequence: Macbeth,” “she has been forced to employ the feminine qualities of Eve to tempt Macbeth” (Coursen 381). After pressuring him to go through with this plan, Macbeth struggled after the incident, but Lady Macbeth pushed it off thinking it was not something to make a big deal about. After Macbeth returns from committing the murder, he is horrified at what he has done and does not want to go back to the scene. Lady Macbeth says, “Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead Are but as pictures” (2.2.69-70). She is much more focused on framing King Duncan's servants and making sure she and her husband are not suspected. At first, she is not affected by going to the scene of Duncan’s death because she sees the sleeping and dead alike. To her, it is just a picture in her

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