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Macbeth Guilt Essay

1172 Words5 Pages

Guilt plays a major role in this play because of the characters actions that follow them throughout the entire play. Gradually, their guilt begins to consume them physiologically and physically. In the play Macbeth, we see how Macbeth's actions eventually kill him. It all starts with the murder of the King Duncan. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's drive for power is essentially the reason they die. Slowly but surely their guilt consumes them and drives them to the point of insanity. The relentless feeling of guilt overwhelms the couple and influences their emotions and actions throughout the play. The story of Macbeth shows us an underlying theme: that everything you do has consequences. What started as a strong and powerful marriage ultimately ended …show more content…

They would do anything to get what they want and won't stop at anything, no matter who they hurt. Macbeth is inspired by Lady Macbeth to kill Duncan and she fuels his ambition by pushing him to murder Duncan. Now that they know what they are capable of, no one can stop them, or so they thought. They become increasingly unstable, haunted by their actions. They start experiencing hallucinations, which shows us that things are going downhill. “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee!” (Macbeth 2.1.34-35) In this quote we see that Macbeth is envisioning a dagger that is not really there. This foreshadows Macbeth's internal conflict as his actions start to mess with his mind. He says this before he commits the awful crime and it shows us the internal struggle that he will have throughout the duration of the play. The need for power overcame their morals and ethics, everything they could have wanted they got, but it resulted in their death. Lady Macbeth might not have committed any acts of murder, but she too played a big role in the play. She is a manipulative woman who influenced the bad choices her husband made. In a scene of the play she calls on spirits to unsex her, which means taking out all the good within her, filling her with cruelty. It shows us that she does not care about herself or the people around her. She just wants power and has the ambition to do so. Eventually, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have no remorse for their actions and only care about the throne. Which essentially leads to the murders of Banquo and Macduff's family. After causing so much destruction, their guilt consumes

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