ipl-logo

How Is Guilt Used In Macbeth

457 Words2 Pages

Macbeth, by Shakespeare, is a story of a great warrior named Macbeth who was told by three witches that he would become king. This prediction makes him think it is justified to kill the current king and once he is king he believes that he is invincible. In Macbeth, many symbols are used such as a dagger that isn’t there, hallucinations of blood, and ghosts to show the overwhelming guilt that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have over the murders to highlight the theme that guilt can drive people to insanity when kept in secret. First of all, Macbeth is alone and has decided that he is going to kill King Duncan. All of a sudden he sees a dagger but can’t feel it and says, “I have thee not, and yet I see thee still” (Shakespeare 2.1.35). Macbeth’s guilt over just thinking about killing Duncan is being symbolized by seeing a …show more content…

Secondly, later on after Lady Macbeth and Macbeth pull off the murder of King Duncan, Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking and begins to aggressively rub her hands, saying she is trying to get a spot of blood off. She then proceeds to talk in her sleep saying, “Who would have / thought the old man to have had so much blood” (Shakespeare 5.1.33-34). Lady Macbeth’s guilt is being symbolized by the hallucinations of blood on her hands during her sleep. She is so overwhelmed with guilt, that she has to keep secret, that her subconscious is causing her to go crazy and talk about it in her sleep. Lastly, after the murderer, that Macbeth sent, tells Macbeth that he finished off Banquo, Macbeth must entertain guests for a dinner party. He sees the ghost of Banquo sitting in his seat and begins to get angry when no one else can see this apparition, then proceeds to yell at this ghost, that only he sees, in front of everyone saying, “Avaunt, and quit my sight!”(Shakespeare 3.4.93). Again Shakespeare is symbolizing guilt with a hallucination, in this case of a

Show More
Related
995 Words | 4 Pages

Duncan announces to Macbeth that he will be staying at Inverness castle. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth plan Duncan’s murder, but before killing Duncan, Macbeth has a vision of a bloody dagger and a conversation with himself where he says, “ I see thee still, on thy blade gouts of blood, Which was not so before… It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes” (Shakespeare 2.1.57-61). The idea of the bloody dagger is to point out that there is a temptation and a perfect opportunity to kill Duncan. The dagger is a “false creation” that Macbeth creates in his mind and he sees it covered in blood which gives him the confidence to kill Duncan.

Read More
262 Words | 2 Pages

The play “The Tragedy of Macbeth” by William Shakespeare is about how guilt weighs in on a person's conscious and reveals how if strong enough, guilt can make someone so paranoid that they cannot think straight. Macbeth’s guilt begins to rise after he kills King Duncan to gain power. Macbeth first shows his guilt when he says “ To Know my deed ‘twere best not know myself” (2.3 71). Macbeth is basically saying that in order for him to comprehend what he has done, he must lose his conscience. From this point in the story, Macbeth’s guilt avalanches into something huge that Macbeth didn’t expect.

Read More
1724 Words | 7 Pages

After killing Duncan, Macbeth’s mental state changes completely. The difference between the moment before the murder and the moment after is that Macbeth’s lack of determination. He feels personally responsible for the murder and wishes it never happened. Thus, he is afraid to look at the dead body and face what he has done (2.2.54-56). His regret of the murder shows the transformation of Macbeth’s attitude: he lets his remorse overpower him to the point of madness.

Read More
936 Words | 4 Pages

Her famous quote said during her episode, “Out damned spot, out, I say, who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?” (5.1.25–28), shows how she sees blood, with it being a physical manifestation of the guilt that has accumulated in her mind. However, Lady Macbeth is not the only one who experiences this guilt, Macbeth experiences these manifestations of guilt as well. A famous example of this is the bloody ghost of Banquo appearing while Macbeth is having dinner. Banquo was a good friend of Macbeth, and killing him took a great toll on Macbeth.

Read More
702 Words | 3 Pages

The initial guilt felt by Macbeth, immediately after killing Duncan has created an abiding unrest within him in which he is unable to feel completely content: “And with thy bloody and invisible hand / Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond / Which keeps me pale!” (3.2.54-6). The oxymoron, ‘bloody and invisible', used to describe the hand, shows a sharp contradiction between appearance and reality by comparing the hidden feelings of guilt to the outer shell of innocence perceived by everyone else. Macbeth must conceal his guilt to lessen any developing suspicions from other characters. To achieve his desired reign as king, which already the audience knows is not possible because of the disruption he has created within the order of society, Macbeth feels obligated to kill everyone that threatens his power.

Read More
415 Words | 2 Pages

Macbeth kills someone and ends up feeling guilty. He wasn’t able to separate what was real life and what wasn’t after the murder. Lady Macbeth wasn’t so innocent either. She kept washing her hands trying to scrub the blood off. The blood on her hands was disguised as guilt.

Read More
977 Words | 4 Pages

After a while of convincing conversation and arguing, he finally decides to do it. He soon realizes the entire rest of his life he would have this feeling of guilt and of a dirty murderer to remind him of his bloody deeds. Macbeth has many moments where he has to realize he is just seeing things. As stated before he had seen the dagger, which symbolized the murder and then he had the incident where he saw Banquo’s ghost during dinner.

Read More
824 Words | 4 Pages

Macbeths guilty conscience makes him unable to play the ‘true’ role of a villain of the play. Macbeth begins to see ‘false creations’ before murdering Duncan; the image of a floating dagger taunts Macbeth’s senses. Macbeth is devoured in his anxiety he starts to hallucinate the crime before going through with it. Macbeth is unable to dispose thoughts of his guilt and doubt, which prevents him from being stuck at the point where it is too late to turn back, yet the fear of his nature prevents him from turning completely into a ruthless coldblooded

Read More
793 Words | 4 Pages

In this scene Macbeth visualizes the blood dagger used to murder this character being in his hands. He says ‘ a dagger of the mind, a false creation.’ Macbeth is aware it's all a hallucination and he snaps out of seeing this visage. Further into these scenes Macbeth imagines seeing the ghost of a friend he murdered named Banquo. Not only is Macbeth feeling guilty over killing the king so he can take his spot he feels even more guilt because he killed his friend.

Read More
300 Words | 2 Pages

Macbeth enters carrying the bloody dagger that he used to kill Duncan. He's nervous and shaken. He tells Lady Macbeth that he heard a voice saying "sleep no more" but, she tells him to wash the blood from his hand and warns him not to think of the sickly things that he was thinking, and she takes the daggers back in since Macbeth is still in shock of the crime he committed.

Read More
1099 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the soliloquy, Shakespeare builds tension to coincide with the decision making that Macbeth has to do. He does this first through repetition of the phrase “I see”. Every time this phrase is used, more detail is added to what Macbeth is conveying increases the tension as the dagger gradually starts leading him towards Duncan’s chambers. After this, as Macbeth becomes closer and closer to becoming certain in his decision, Shakespeare personifies murder, saying that it “moves like a ghost”, creating a supernatural atmosphere, as well as alluding to “Tarquin’s ravishing strides”. Tarquin was a tyrannical king, who committed many sacrilegious acts, such as

Read More
256 Words | 2 Pages

The soliloquy before the murder of Duncan in the Shakespearean play Macbeth allows the readers to begin to understand the effects Macbeth’s guilt has on his unstable state of mind and how it would lead to descending rationality, visions, and ultimately, his destruction. The illusion of the dagger manifests into a metaphor of Macbeth’s guilt, portraying his obsessiveness with the morality of the murder as it became the sole focus of the soliloquy, haunting him throughout it. “On [the] blade and its’ [handle] [there were] spots of blood” which symbolised the murder he had yet to commit (58). This proves how effective and deep his guilt lies as he already feels shame for an act he has not yet committed, and this guilt led him to conjure up a hallucination

Read More
813 Words | 4 Pages

Blood relates to the idea of guilt and it is emphasised clearly in Act 5 scene 1 where lady Macbeth appears to be bothered by the “blood on her hands” while she screams “out, damned spot!”. This demonstrates that lady Macbeth is distressed by her hallucinations of blood and is also beginning to experience guilt because not even “all the perfumes of Arabia” will wash away her sin. Lady Macbeth also experiences fear when she says “what’s done cannot be undone”, demonstrating that Lady Macbeth realises it is too late to regret her actions. Therefore, Lady Macbeth is not entirely fiendish as the audience gets to see Lady Macbeth’s remorse and what she is truly like as she confesses her feelings from deep

Read More
781 Words | 4 Pages

Finally, the vision of a bloody dagger that emerged right before the murder emboldened Macbeth to kill King Duncan. Prior to murdering Duncan, Macbeth was hesitant about following through with his wife 's merciless task. He doubted that he was able to murder one of his most loyal friends, until he saw the vision. On page 43, Act II, scene I, Macbeth sees the apparition: "Is this a dagger that I see before me with its handle turned to my hand?" Macbeth contemplates whether it is a figure of his imagination prompted on by his already guilty conscience, or a supernatural encounter that is compelling him to do the deed.

Read More
433 Words | 2 Pages

At first Lady Macbeth did not feel any guilt until things begin to get carried away. Sleepwalking, Lady Macbeth is heard saying, “Here's the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. ”(5:1:53-55) and“ Out damned spot, out, I say”(5.1.37). Lady Macbeth is saying these things because she is visualizing that there is blood still on her hands representing her extreme guilt because she knows what she did not was wrong.

Read More

More about How Is Guilt Used In Macbeth

Open Document