Guilt In Macbeth By William Shakespeare

For this assessment task, I have created a digital visual representation. I have used the distinctive idea of guilt within my representation to showcase how guilt can eat you alive. This is represented by the clock signifying Lady Macbeth’s time is running out and the death’s head hawk moth utilised as an omen of death. I have chosen to portray this through a clock to symbolise her time is running out as the clock ticks closer to the death of the head hawk moth.

Guilt is one of the main key ideas throughout ‘Macbeth’. Within my visual representation, your eyes are drawn to the centre, which is a massive clock. This clock represents Lady Macbeth’s death countdown and how guilt eats you alive. Utilising the technique of salience, the massive

The small writing on the hands reading ‘times up’ reflects how guilt can destroy us if left ignored. Act 5, Scene 1 in Macbeth Lady Macbeth is said to be sleepwalking and is consumed by the unbearable guilt after her role in King Duncan’s Murder. Throughout the scene, she is obsessively trying to wash the imaginary blood off her hands “damn’d spot” crying out “Out, damned spot!” in an attempt to cleanse herself of her crime. The use of imaginary in this act Shakespeare shows how Lady Macbeth obsessively attempts to wash the imaginary blood from her hands. Lady Macbeth has lost her sanity in this sense, showing how her grip on reality is slipping due to the intensity of her guilt. In the scene, Lady Macbeth’s obsessive hand washing within the sleepwalking scene demonstrates how guilt can eat away at one's psychological behaviour. The ticking clock in my representation conveys how guilt is inescapable and Lady Macbeth cannot run from it. The sense of guilt being inescapable is relevant to modern audiences. As many relate to the feeling of being trapped by their own poor choices, my visual representation conveys that message of human experiences and takes these themes from Macbeth on a more significant level. In

Seen within my visual representation is a giant death’s head hawk moth. This insect is positioned right at 12 o’clock on the clock and the moth’s skull-like pattern on its thorax is associated with superstition or as an omen of death. Death is tied to the theme of guilt within Macbeth. In Act 5, Scene 1, a gentlewoman reports to the Doctor about Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking and talks about the murders that her husband has committed. The woman states "I’ve seen her get up, throw on her nightgown, unlock her cabinet, pull out some paper, fold it, write on it, read it, seal it closed, and then go back to bed. And all this while fast asleep!" This description shows Lady Macbeth's unstable mental state and her abnormal sleepwalking behaviour. Later in the play, Act 5, Scene 5. Seyton say’s "The Queen, my lord, is dead." By the intense guilt Lady Macbeth was suffering, it is believed she was driven to her death. The sleepwalking scene foreshadows Lady Macbeth’s death to come later in the play. Her distributive behaviour within the scene shows signs of how her mental state is slipping and hints to the audience about what is about to come. Shakespeare is very creative with how he chooses to connect with his audiences as the audience can gather a deeper understanding of the guilt that drives the characters insane and eventually leads to their downfall. With the placement of the moth at the 12 o’clock it can show the unavoidable