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Macbeth Guilt Essay

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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

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— Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.” After analyzing the play, when Lady Macbeth says those lines she is sleep walking and seems to be distressed because of all the things that happened. She thinks it's all because of her that many lives have been cut short. She thinks Macbeth is afraid of people finding out the truth but the one who is truly afraid is her. She's afraid she will be blamed and caught for her actions because she knows she is one of the reasons why most of the people are dead due to her encouraging Macbeth to kill all those in his way to become more powerful and eliminate those who threaten his power.

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The play of Macbeth by William Shakespeare, is a riveting story about the main character of Macbeth. Macbeth receives a prophecy from three witches, in which he was destined to become king. Macbeth then chases this prophecy by going after and murdering King Duncan, the King of Scotland. Macbeth’s friend Banquo then becomes suspicious of what had happened to King Duncan, which drives Macbeth to murder him out of desperation. Paranoia drives Macbeth to murder anyone who he thinks is suspicious of him, or whoever threatens him as king.

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“Macbeth” is a tragic play about a gruesome rise to power and the downfall of it all. Macbeth goes down menacing paths in order to get the power he believes he deserves. Macbeth is easily persuaded by a prophecy promised by three witches, this contributes to him making sinister decisions that are not worthwhile. Macbeth encounters many strange/supernatural experiences, struggles with a constant paranoia and finds himself being stuck in a endless rut fuelled by ambition. By the end, he is trapped in a world he had created himself.

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Since the guilt built up Macbeth started losing his mind more and more. Killing was a way to feel power to Macbeth since his wife used that against him when challenging his man hood. Lady Macbeth knew the other plans but never stopped them. Stopping a problem before it happens can make someone feel good about themselves, but Lady Macbeth did not stop it. Her not preventing the future murders that was more guilt added to her

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yet who would have thought the old man had so much blood in him” (5.1.36). Lady Macbeth feels as if she can not be mentally cleansed until her hands are. Lady Macbeth's failure to relieve the guilt causes her to commit suicide. “The queen, my lord, is dead… she should have died hereafter” (5.5.20). Lady Macbeth had too much guilt to deal with which is why she needed to be in peace.

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In the beginning of the play, Macbeth felt guilt and remorse for what he had done to his cousin, King Duncan. We see this in Act 2, scene 2, when Macbeth quotes,¨ill go no more; I am afraid to think what I have done; look on I dare not.¨ In this dialogue he says to Lady Macbeth that he won't commit anymore murders and fears for his life. As the play goes on, though, we see a completely different person as his mindset drastically shifts. Shakespeare shows how a person's actions affect their personlity by having selfish desires turning them into a person only driven by power and ambition.

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This evidence can be crucially represented in the shared common ideology that Macbeth first turns to violence as his first escape while presenting a lucid example of this lust for peace behind bloodshed. In further reasoning, another critical reason behind the development of Macbeth's insanity was his everlasting paranoia and guilt. Throughout the play, Macbeth's struggle to cope with his guilt was displayed numerous

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He tells her he can't get the murder out of his mind. Lady Macbeth listens impatiently to her husband and tells him "These deeds must not be thought of these ways. So, it will make us mad." (Act 2, Scene 2, Page 25 Line 33-34) She is basically saying to Macbeth, stop thinking like that or you are going to make yourself crazy.

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Lady Macbeth then gradually begins to bear the guilt "where our desire is got without content 'tis safer to be that which we destroy than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy". She says in a soliloquy, which Shakespeare uses to portray her deepest thoughts as she is afraid of killing more. Lady Macbeth feels that nothing was gained by killing Duncan because even though she and Macbeth got the crown, it wasn’t worth it because they can never be truly happy about it. She thinks death is better to have than living a life with questions of their future

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It teaches important lessons to readers about how guilt can take over your life and change you as a person. In the play, Macbeth, William Shakespeare examines the theme of guilt, expressed in order to demonstrate the purpose psychological deterioration. To start off, in Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, the theme of guilt is established through Macbeth’s inner conflict. Throughout the novel Macbeth’s psyche goes from a stable mind to a paranoid state.

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She makes it seem like it is simple to get rid of the thought that he just murdered the King by just washing the blood. While Macbeth inside is suffering from his guilt Lady Macbeth makes seem so effortless and acts like nothing happened. The thought questioning herself of what action she forced her husband to do or get involved in never crosses her mind. She gives him false hope on stating that everything will be fine if he just goes and washes all the blood and act absent-mindedly. Shakespeare is showing that “ cannot commit such crime without undergoing terrible inner torment and triggering self-defeating behavior”( Paris) shows that it is the less external consequences of his crime than the internal deterioration.

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