Macbeth's Guilt Essay

“I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself…” (1.7.25-27) During the first act, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth come up with a plan to kill King Duncan, so Macbeth can become the king. But there are some obstacles that Macbeth has to face before becoming king. And Macbeth admits that he has ambition taking him over and that it is making him “power hungry” or just wanting to become powerful. There had been some confusion whether Macbeth's death is to be blamed by Macbeth, his guilt, or his ambition/his way of wanting to become powerful. Throughout the whole play, Macbeth helps us understand that it is his ambition and his way of wanting to become powerful, causes his death, because he murders

Macbeth keeps on ordering people to be killed, and at the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth was the one who wanted everyone to be killed, and she kept saying that Macbeth was “too weak” to kill King Duncan and here he is, killing people after people. “Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, till thou applaud the deed.” (3.2.45-46) Another example is towards the end of Act 5, Macbeth knows he is probably going to die, especially after the witches give him his three apparitions in Act 4. Macbeth knows that he is going to have to fight Malcolm and Macduff, especially after killing Macduff’s family, and his first apparition said “Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff! Beware the Thane of Fife. Dismiss me: enough.” (4.1.71-72). The witches are telling Macbeth that he needs to watch out for Macduff, because he is up to something. Then throughout the rest of Act 5, Macbeth starts loosing it. As if he is going crazy, it's kind of like his power hungry is starting to wear off, and he isn't thinking straight. In Scene Three of Act 5, Macbeth keeps insisting that he gets his armor and wears it “I’ll fight, till from my bones my flesh be hacked. Give me my armor.” (5.3.33-34), but Seyton keeps telling him, “No, you're crazy if you put your armor on now.” No one would ever put their armor on hours before the fight, because the armor weighs around 100

Not just King Duncan, his guards, Banquo, and Macduff’s family. But it also causes Lady Macbeth to die, and Macbeth ends up dying too. Lady Macbeth, in the beginning of the play, was telling Macbeth to kill King Duncan. She even came up with all the plans and how it was going to turn out. Even though Lady Macbeth was telling Macbeth what to do, his own ambition took over and he killed King Duncan. If he didn't want to kill King Duncan, he didn't have to. “Even if Lady Macbeth pressured Macbeth, he killed King Duncan impelled by his own selfish ambition…” (Cause of Guilt)She ended up becoming guilty from Macbeth's murdering of King Duncan, her guilt took her life. Macbeth constantly kills people to “cover up” for the previous murders. “The ambition of Macbeth starts to get out of control and makes him repeatedly kill, just to cover up his prior murders.” (Costa) This is why, the one to blame for the death of Macbeth, is his own