In Macbeth, Shakespeare’s tragic play, we are constantly reminded of the consequences of one’s actions. At the beginning of the play, we are first introduced to three witches. In one of their many prophecies, they tell the fearless and noble Scottish general Macbeth that he will be King of Scotland. Encouraged by his wife, Macbeth kills the king and seizes the throne. During his brief reign, paranoia and ambition lead Macbeth to engineer a vicious killing spree that relegates him to the title of tyrant. A civil war erupts to overthrow Macbeth, once again resulting in more blood. Despite being analyzed in terms of the play's basic concepts of ambition, gender, and betrayal, Macbeth is essentially a study of guilt. Shakespeare presents guilt as both permanent and a cause for …show more content…
As she enquires a moment alone after speaking to a servant, we see just how much these guilty thoughts are affecting her: “Tis safer to be that of which we destroy than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.” (3.2.6-7). In this short glimpse into Lady Macbeth’s mind, she says it’s better to be the person who was murdered than to be the murderer and to live with doubt and anxiety. At this point in the play, Lady Macbeth is living with the guilt of the murders she and her husband executed. The guilt that stays in her mind as she has flashbacks of all these murders is eating away at her sense of humanity and reality to the point where she wishes she were dead too. This quote also foreshadows the moment in Act 5 Scene 5, where Lady Macbeth eventually does kill herself because the thoughts were too much for her because she was so consumed with the constant thought of blood, suffering, and death. In addition, in Act 5 Scene 1, before she dies, we can see the buildup, aftermath, and continuation of Lady Macbeth’s attachment to the murders and her inability to shake them