Guilt In Macbeth

Can guilt be held responsible for causing its victims to go insane? In Macbeth, guilt is a common theme as it captures both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and feeds on their fear, causing them to break character. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is known by the public to be an empathetic and thoughtful Scottish Nobleman. However, once he kills Duncan and assumes his role as king, his guilt about murdering Duncan causes him to spiral out of control, killing anyone who gets in his way. Lady Macbeth begins the play as Macbeth’s confident and manipulative wife. She plans the murder of King Duncan, but persuades her husband to physically commit the crime. As the play continues, Lady Macbeth’s guilt for what she's done slowly overpowers her self certainty,

In the beginning of the play, Macbeth, though hesitant, is manipulated by his wife, Lady Macbeth, into murdering the king, Duncan. After executing the murder, Macbeth feels as though he can no longer recognize himself and is horrified by what he did: “I am afraid to look at what I have done… Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?” (2.2.66-79). The “blood” on Macbeth’s hands that not even “great Neptune’s ocean” could wash off, symbolizes the guilt weighing on his conscience. Though his guilt haunts him, Macbeth knows he must act innocent. He despises himself for murdering Duncan, but knows he must hide his feelings behind an artificial face in order to gain power and convince the public of his innocence. Macbeth says “I have almost forgot the taste of fears. The time has been my senses would have cooled to hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir as life were in’t” (5.5.11-15). Macbeth is explaining how in the past, he would have been shaken up by simply witnessing a murder, his “fell of hair” sticking up in fear. However, now he “almost forgot the taste of fears”, as his constant involvement with murder has numbed his sense of emotion. The feeling of disgust and hatred that guilt once made Macbeth feel towards himself is no longer present; instead, it has been replaced with a strong desire to

The guilt Macbeth is subconsciously preparing for takes its shape as a hallucination of a bloody dagger. When Macbeth sees the dagger he exclaims, “Is this a dagger which I see before me,/… I have thee not, and yet I see thee still./ Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible/ to feeling as to sight? Or art thou but/ a dagger of the mind, a false creation…/ I see thee yet, in form as palpable/ as this which I draw now” (2.1.44-53). Macbeth hallucinates a bloody dagger leading him to Duncan, illustrating that guilt begins to haunt Macbeth before he became a murderer. His subconscious mind is aware that the guilt from killing Duncan will inhabit his brain, as it has already begun taking over his thoughts and controlling his emotions. Macbeth’s common sense is clouded by the guilt looming around the corner. Unlike Macbeth, guilt is seemingly not present for Lady Macbeth. After being assured that her husband has just killed the king, Lady Macbeth calmly states, “These deeds must not be thought/ after these ways; so, it will make us mad” (2.2.45-46). Lady Macbeth seems to have an understanding of guilt that is not yet known by Macbeth, alluding to the possibility that she has experienced guilt before and knows what it can do to a person. She seems to know that guilt