In Shakespeare's timeless masterpiece, "Macbeth," guilt becomes a noticeable force haunting the souls of its protagonists, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. This thesis dives into the complex ways they struggle with their remorse, tracing the evolution of their beliefs and emotions as they consider the consequences of their actions. By examining their changing perspectives throughout the play, we uncover the profound sorrow that comes from their moral wrongdoing. Throughout the beginning of act 1 and 2, Macbeth considers the thought of killing his good friend and colleague King Duncan. When he tells his wife Lady Macbeth that doing that will make him king, she makes him concede to the endeavor, and has him kill the king. When the deed is done, the King is dead, and Lady …show more content…
Before the banquet, he sent murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance, to prevent them from stealing back his royalty in some way. As the banquet starts, he is informed by the murderers that Banquo is dead, but Fleance has escaped. This scares Macbeth as he is about to toast the table. When he is to sit down, a ghost of Banquo appears, and he is taken aback. He tells the specter, “You can’t say I did it. Don’t shake your bloody head at me.” implying to the guests that Macbeth was saying someone was blaming him. Macbeth then starts to get riled up at the appearance of Banquo, and the guests think he has gone slightly mad. Lady Macbeth tries to calm him down as the ghost appears several more times. “It is clear enough that he cannot slip by the act and its consequences without understanding the part he has played” says Joan Hartwig in the article Macbeth, the Murderers, and the Diminishing Parallel. Macbeth is clearly distraught and guilty of killing both the King and Banquo, as well as orphaning a child. He knows what he has done is wrong, and is trying to communicate with his past, bringing nothing more than pain and