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Macbeth Guilt Essay

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Across the many eras and genres of literature, guilt has served as a powerful motivator and punishment for characters. William Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Macbeth is a prime example. The play takes place during a period of great turmoil in the kingdom of Scotland, as Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, are compelled by a strong sense of ambition and a prophecy of Macbeth’s kinghood to murder King Duncan and claim the throne. They find themselves entrenched in a cycle of bloodshed and murder, becoming psychologically scarred by remorse for their actions. Throughout the play, Shakespeare explores the theme of guilt to argue that no matter one’s success at achieving their ambitions, the psychological consequences of their actions will always …show more content…

He murders King Duncan to steal the throne, not anticipating the immense wave of guilt that will wash over him as a result of his crime. Beginning to panic in the moments following the murder, Macbeth wonders, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather / The multitudinous seas incarnadine, / Making the green one red” (Shakespeare 2.2.78-81). Though Macbeth’s longing to be King drove him to murder, the guilt he experiences from this action consumes him. He has achieved the goal he aspired to, gaining power that insulates him from any real accountability, but he is nonetheless unable to escape the wrongness of what he has done. His vision of the blood on his hands turning an entire ocean red reveals the mental torture that is plaguing him, illustrating the trap his mind has become and forcing him to face his actions through visions that drive him to near …show more content…

She sleepwalks, reliving Duncan’s murder in her nightmares, and murmurs to herself, “Out, damned spot, out, I say! / ...Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?...What, will these hands ne’er be clean?” (5.1.37-45). Lady Macbeth, despite being seemingly unfazed by the crimes she helped her husband commit earlier in the play, now experiences the psychological backlash of her guilt. Unable to silence her thoughts even in the middle of the night, she sees visions of King Duncan’s blood on her hands, trying to scrub it off, but to no avail. Though Lady Macbeth achieves her ultimate goal of securing Macbeth’s kinghood, the gruesome visions that she experiences are clear manifestations of her regret for the actions she took to get there. These powerful mental repercussions torment her until her death at the end of the play, when it can even be inferred that they drive her to

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