What makes a moral person? Although morality is malleable, no truly moral person escapes the natural human instinct of guilt. These universal ideas are conveyed throughout Shakespeare’s 17th-century play ‘Macbeth’ and Mark Brozel’s 2005 modern film adaptation, ‘Macbeth Retold’. But why is Shakespeare still relevant in this day and age? Well, “William Shakespeare’s work is not of an age, but for all time”.
Shakespeare’s exploration of guilt is predominantly demonstrated through the portrayal of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The utilisation of a variety of language and stylistic devices enabled the audience to fully comprehend Macbeth/Lady Macbeth’s guilty conscience. A series of incidence’s prompted their guilt including Banquo’s and the King’s murder. The significant literary devices that aided Shakespeare’s portrayal of guilt include Asides, soliloquys and symbolism. The impact of the literary devices will be analysed in accordance with the portrayal of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s guilt.
In this passage, Shakespeare explains how one event can ruin a life and how guilt has a strong hold over the human mind. Shakespeare explores how Macbeth's guilt over Duncan's death is weighing on him. In this passage, Macbeth is speaking about Duncan’s death, he says, “Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had lived a blessed time;” (II.iii. 107-108, Shakespeare). Macbeth is expressing how had he died before the news of Duncan had come out, he would have led a satisfying peaceful life, but now that Duncan is dead, he will have no happiness or peace.
A huge theme that runs throughout Macbeth is the feeling of guilt. Guilt is a feeling of having committed wrong or failed in an obligation. This theme is shown first with Macbeth when he goes to kill Duncan and the bloody dagger was shown. It’s also shown when he starts seeing ghosts of Duncan and Banquo after he kills them. Lastly, it’s shown in Lady Macbeth when she starts sleepwalking.
Lady Macbeth: The Transformation from Ambition to Guilt Lady Macbeth's character in Shakespeare's tragedy "Macbeth" is a complex portrayal of ambition, guilt, and the consequences of unchecked desire for power. Throughout the play, she undergoes a significant transformation driven by her overwhelming ambition and the haunting guilt that consumes her. Her journey from a fiercely ambitious woman to a guilt-ridden figure reveals the intricacies of human nature and the moral dilemmas faced when pursuing one's desires at any cost. In the initial stages of the play, Lady Macbeth receives a letter from her husband detailing the prophecies foretold by the witches. "
Guilt plays a very important role throughout the course of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Not only does it advance the plot, but it plays a major role in character development throughout the play, particularly in the cases of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The two characters handled their guilt very differently, thus causing their different downfalls. Macbeth ignores his guilt, thus leading him to commit further crimes and blurring his moral conscience. Lady Macbeth handles her guilt differently; she has no method of distraction and is haunted by her guilt.
Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, also realizes that nothing can save her from her guilt. Using her persuasive powers to manipulate him, Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to commit the murder. Even going as far to provide the plan and the means for carrying out the deed. Lady Macbeth is also the one who frames the guards for the murder, and she helps cover up the murder by taking the daggers back to the crime scene and washing the blood off of Macbeth’s hands. In the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is portrayed as a strong, ambitious woman that would do anything to achieve her goals.
The feeling of guilt can over power a person a control over you resulting in you not being able to trust your own decisions or just make you do irrational, unethical things. In Shakespeare 's play Macbeth, guilt takes over Macbeth and his wife after they murder King Duncan Shakespeare uses hands to show the transformation of trust in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and how they go from being able to trust to being untrustworthy themselves. We see Macbeth start to change when the sergeant is speaking about how he, "ne 'er shook hands, nor bade farewell ..." to the rebel Macdonwald. Handshaking is something people do to show trust and understanding between them and since he did not do this with McDonald we can see that he does not trust this person nor does he want anything to do with him. After he goes to the witches and gets his prophecy, his trust in people began to change.
How Illusions and Guilt Can Lead to Downfall In the play The Tragedy of Macbeth, William Shakespeare developed the idea that the way people perceive themselves depend on what they are told about themselves and what their actions may lead to, but the reality may be completely different from what they think. The reason that one’s identity may rely on illusion is because a human relies on what others see and think of them. The characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth showed that blood on their hands made them feel guilty because even though they were willing to do whatever they had to to get to the crown, guilt still weighed them down. Shakespeare also showed through his characters that the way one reacts to a prophecy alter their personality for
After being involved in a distressing situation, we always attempt to convince ourselves that we are not deserving of the consequences. However, feelings of discomfort always seem to accompany us, also known as guilt. In Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, Guilt is a major theme portrayed throughout. Lady Macbeth is driven by this guilt due to committing regicide and is propelled to suicide. I believe that Lady Macbeth is extremely deserving of this guilty conscience.
Macbeth: The man at Fault for his Crimes Murder is the killing of a human being without a lawful excuse and is often influenced by external or internal forces. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the ruthless series of murders committed by Macbeth stems from his external and internal influences. Firstly, naivety allows the character to be manipulated which then affects actions and decisions throughout the play which end up leading to their downfall. Secondly, ambition helps the character gain a desire for power and in the play where many of the murders are committed because of the character’s ambition.
The human conscience, which is an aptitude or judgement in mental system is the ability to rationalize between right and wrong, and the ability to feel guilt for actions one has done. The ability to feel guilt and to possess a conscience is what makes us all human, however in William Shakespeare's Macbeth we encounter both creatures that are not human, the three witches, and also a woman who aspired to rid herself of her conscience but in the end was driven to madness, and eventually death, by guilt. Macbeth, a valiant and brave warrior, who was hounded by a prophecy given to him by 3 witches who prophesized that he would be king, would with his power hungry wife,Lady Macbeth, plot and murder their king, Duncan. The two would go through
Lady Macbeth could not handle the guilt and loneliness accompanied with her actions and killed herself. Throughout the play Lady Macbeth slowly becomes less and less of a central character, and barely has any lines past the banquet. Her fading into the background is representative of the isolation she feels from her husband. While she had origional ly started him on this path with hopes that she would rise to power with him, he has left her behind and she is left to clean up his messes. It seems as if her husband has become too obsessed with power and no longer cares for her.
Most people in the world become obsessed with power, which their ambition takes over for more power, till those who fail feel regret from the kind of things they did for power, becoming overwhelmed with guilt that destroys them. As in William Shakespeare Macbeth, the story of the Thane of Glamis, Macbethturned into Thane of Clawthor, who in the play was met with the three witches telling Macbeth and his squire, Banquo their fates. \ After Macbeth and his good friend Banquo hear their prophecies, which Macbeth later tells Lady Macbeth, it convinces her that Macbeth must become king no matter what. So later when King Duncan came to stay over at Macbeth’s castle to celebrate, Lady Macbeth gets the idea of killing Duncan for the throne. Many hours
When you think of hands you may perceive them as tools, an extension of you or someone's else's body, or maybe a way to communicate. However the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, uses hands as a motif throughout the play to mold a central idea in Macbeth, this being guilt. Shown throughout the play through actions and quotes the characters partake in, this is especially prominent with Macbeth after the murder of King Duncan. Oftentimes when Macbeth mentions his hands he refers to the guilt he feels throughout the play. Though how does this develop a central idea of guilt, and how can this be shown throughout the characters actions?
