Theme Of Guilt In Macbeth

Have you ever been told that one day you would do great things? Maybe more specifically like being an owner of a big business, or maybe even the president of a big organization. Most people experience a time in their life where they are told that one day they will amount to something big, all they have to do is get there. Though a lot of people may think that Macbeth is driven by the pursuit of power the real reason he acts in such a monstrous way is because of the buildup of guilt and trauma seen through the way he treats his life and how his thoughts consume him.
After Macbeth murders King Duncan, readers become aware of some of the initial signs of guilt and trauma that Macbeth portrays, but if you rewind a little, it is shown that Macbeth

For instance, readers will start to see how Macbeth begins to think differently by how he starts to envy King Duncan and the fact that he is dead and at peace rather than living in guilt and shame such as himself. This also helps to see how he starts treating his life differently because he begins to value life a lot less after all the guilt that is resonating in his soul. This is true because guilt is something that comes from negative evaluation of one’s behavior, so it took Macbeth to evaluate what he has done and and categorize it as something negative (Dean). Lady Macbeth points out something important which is in regards to the way Macbeth starts to act. She says that the facial expressions he makes will give away his fears of killing the king which tells us that his facial expressions make it evident that his guilt is taking over the way he acts. Macbeth even begins to fear fear itself and believes his fate will result in the same as Duncan, or maybe the same as his other

There is no way that only a pursuit of power would drive someone this crazy to murder people who are not even threats to his goal as king so why do it in the first place? While nearing the end of the play, readers can see that Macbeth is using different coping methods to deal with his guilt such as doing other laborious tasks to distract his thoughts which is something people do a lot when dealing with guilt on any level of extremity. Another thing we see is how Macbeth feels that he has to lie about what he has done to keep himself safe. He feels burdened by what he has done and as a professor who studied Shakespeare 's plays once said “The more he lies, the more he cripples his conscience. The more he deceives, the deeper the trauma embeds itself in his mind” (Evans). Lastly, Macbeth is so far gone that he is incapable of being helped by anyone to calm him down or help him through his thought process. Lady Macbeth tries to help him but in a very ineffective way. We see this a lot with people who are trying to help others traumatized by guilt by telling them not to be emotional, and that they are being childish which only makes the situation worse. Guilt and trauma are things that each and every person can experience and it can have an impact on us all. As another psychologist once quoted, “Guilt increases empathy and the