Guilt In Lady Macbeth

Guilt can have a negative impact on one’s health and one’s mental state. In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, a strong and confident woman becomes a victim of guilt. The protagonist’s wife thirst for power leads to her to insanity and eventual death. Lady Macbeth’s ambition turns into regret. Furthermore, her dedication turns into desperation. Eventually she is no longer able to supress her conscious and her guilt takes over. All solid things have a foundation, and ambition is the foundation of Lady Macbeth’s sinful actions.

Lady Macbeth’s desire to achieve what she wants is very strong. In the beginning of the play, the queen shows far more will power than her husband. “Glamis, thou art, and Cawdor; shalt be/what thou art promised.”(1.5. 13,

While it was smiling in my face, / have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out...” ( 1. 7. 57-60 ). The soon to be queen really points out her dedication by making it clear that she will do whatever it takes even if it takes brutally killing an innocent baby. She also ensures that her plan is strategies’ perfectfly so that her husband can go through with the murder the best way possible. When lady Macbeth realizes that Macbeth’s guilt is destroying her plan, She decides to take matters into her own hands to fix what could have been a critical error on Macbeth’s part. When Macbeth comes out with the daggers and cries that he is not willing to go back, lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth starts out the play as a ruthless and ambitious woman but her evil actions that she used to brush off starts to weight on her. After she becomes queen she starts to take notice that she is not as happy as she should be. She says: “Naught’s had, all’s spent, / Where our desire is got without content..” . Lady Macbeth questions her happiness and questions weither her sins are worth the crown. “'Tis safer to be that which we destroy / Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.” Lady Macbeth claims that its better to be the person who were murdered than to be the killer and be tortured by guilt. It was at that moment the queen has thoughts of suicide. Eventually the guilt completely consumes her and she is no longer to function properly. When she is brought to go see a doctor, she exclaims while sleepwalking : “The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now? / What, will these hands ne'er be clean?--No more o' / that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all /with /this starting.”(5. 1. 46-50). She is regretting all the sins she has done, and blaming herself for all the death’s. the doctor exclaims that what has happened is beyond his control: “More needs she the divine than the physician”( 5. 1. ). The doctor admits that she needs divine help, help from god. After her meeting with the doctor she cries : “To / bed, to bed! there's knocking at the gate: / come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What's /