Macbeth Essay High school seniors read Macbeth to learn the significance guilt has on one's behavior. Shakespeare’s play Macbeth is just one example of this, Lady Macbeth descends into madness because of her guilt towards manipulation of her husband in the initial stages. Although she is the one first making the plans, Lady Macbeth soon realizes that started the sequence of events that led to her and Macbeth's downfall. When Macbeth begins to act independently, her guilt becomes increasingly amplified throughout the various murders that he commits until she becomes depressed and suicidal. Lady Macbeth’s descent into madness is caused by her guilt, which can have a serious impact on a person's body language, often making them go insane. Lady …show more content…
She plans to accomplish this by manipulating and insulting her husband's manliness, saying “When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more the man.” (Shakespeare 1,7,48-49). She convinces Macbeth to murder Duncan, saying he is not a man unless he does it, which effectively turns Macbeth evil. Since she is ambitious she does everything in her power to become queen, resulting in her bad decisions. Lady Macbeth's breakdown is tied to the idea of power, which causes her to have a mental breakdown and go insane. Lady Macbeth feels responsible for the start of the murders and evil acts that caused her declining mental state. Her remorse for her actions is portrayed when she tries to wash the blood out of her hands while sleepwalking saying “Out damn’d spot! out, I say!” (5,1,29). In this scene, Lady Macbeth rinses Duncan's “blood” off her hands to try to rid herself of the consequences of her actions, showing how guilt often controls a person and alters their behavior. She then continues to say that she is responsible for the murders by saying “The Thane of Fife had a wife; where is she