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Examples Of Guilt In Macbeth

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Macbeth is a play written by William Shakespeare that is about a once good noblemen in Macbeth devolve into tyrannical deeds and act due to his vaulting ambition which eventually leads into his downfall. This is the same with other characters too. William Shakespeare was able to weave into this play how guilt and hallucinations can have dire consequence on the characters mental health. Guilt and hallucinations drove Macbeth to be constantly paranoid. Guilt also drove Lady Macbeth to insanity, and it drove Macbeth for reassurance from the witches which eventually led to his downfall of his kingdom. Macbeth at the start of the play is seen dependable, loyal noblemen but as the play progresses, he becomes consumed by guilt which leads to paranoia. An example of this is where he first …show more content…

Throughout the play, the guilt leads him to kill more and more people because he needs reassurance that he is safe. Because of this constant reassurance, he would end up killing Banquo. As he says, “Our fears in Banquo stick deep.” This quote shows that Macbeth was worried over the fact Banquo was the only one who knew about his prophecy. He needed reassurance because he needed to be sure that Banquo could never find out that he killed King Duncan otherwise his position would be put under threat which could’ve led to his downfall much sooner. Also, his need for reassurance leads to him going to the witches for the second time. The scene before, he was terrified and shaken by the illusion of Banquo’s ghost, so he wanted to make sure everything would be found by going back to the witches. The witches would end up tricking Macbeth into thinking he was invincible which stopped him for needing reassurance. They tricked him by saying ‘No man women born can kill Macbeth.’ This led to Macbeth no longer feeling the need for reassurance as he thought that he was invincible, but the witches did trick

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